Shillong, Jan 15: Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said that operation to trace the miners trapped inside a coal mine in East Jaiñtia Hills district will continue, but experts will take a call on the fate of the rescue operation.

The miners reportedly 15 of them, were trapped inside the coal pit at Khloo Ryngksan for more than one month since December 13.

There was no sign of tracing the bodies despite continued operations by various agencies.

On mine mishaps in the state including the one that trapped 15 miners inside a coal pit at Khloo Ryngksan, Tynsong said that such incident did not happen only now, or only in Meghalaya.

“This is not an isolated incident as mine mishap takes places in other parts of India and other countries too. In 2012 too, the incident took place in South Garo Hills prior to the ban on coal mining by the NGT in 2014. After the ban on coal mining also, there were incidences of mining and illegal transportation of coal and several cases were registered since 2014 till date. Therefore there is no room for blame game and the blame cannot be on the government alone because we have been instructing the deputy commissioners and Superintendent of Police to take action by seizing and arresting those involved in illegal activities. But it is also not easy for the law enforcing people to monitor everything as vested interest would always take advantage of the remoteness of the area and involved in mining coal illegally despite the ban. People should understand that they should not involve in such illegal things,” Tynsong said.

On the rescue operation, Tynsong said that the operation to trace the trapped miners would continue and that is why the state government has roped in experts and agencies from various parts of the country to help in the rescue operation.

“We express our sincere thanks to experts and teams involved in the rescue operations,” Tynsong said, while informing that the operation was very difficult as the water level inside the coal mine did not recede despite continued pumping out of water.

Spokesperson for the rescue operation, R. Sungi said that the Odisha Fire Services operated their pump from11.50.am till 5 pm on Tuesday and the discharge of water from the flooded coal pit was approximately 4,59,000 litres.

“The Coal India Limited also pumped out the water for 5 hours and the total discharge was 6,23,700 litres . The Indian Navy operated their Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) for 15 hourrs inside an old shaft to survey and sanitize the shaft,” Susngi said.

The NDRF personnel are also coordinating with other agencies and assisted them with all the available resources.

Preparation of the KSB pump was also on, Sungi said, adding that Dr Sudhir, Dr Niraj Kumar, Dr Dewashish Kumar ,Dr Vineet Kumar of the Plenys-Chennai Technology were conducting survey of the rock strata, seepage and loose formation in the surface of the mining area.

The Kirloskar pump was shifted to another shaft to allow the Indian Navy to operate their ROV freely without any obstruction.