Guwahati, Feb 19: Divers fished out decomposed bodies of two more miners trapped inside a coal mine in Assam’s Dima Hasao district on Wednesday, 44 days after they went missing in the quarry, an official said.
With this recovery, six of the nine miners who had been trapped there on January 6 were found.
Dewatering operation in the mine at Umrangshu has been continuing for over one month. The two highly decomposed corpses were spotted by the divers who went in and brought them out.
The bodies are yet to be identified, the official said.
Nine workers were trapped inside the mine on January 6 and the body of one was recovered two days later while those of three others were found on January 11.
An ex-gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh each has been paid by the government to the next of kin of the four miners whose bodies were recovered earlier and Rs six lakh each to the family of those trapped inside.
The state government had announced that the family of all trapped inside the mine would be paid a total of Rs 10 lakh each.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that if the dewatering continues at the current rate, it will take about 25 to 60 days for the process to be completed, and it will continue till a ‘logical conclusion’ is reached.
The chief minister had earlier claimed that the mine was abandoned 12 years ago and was under the Assam Mineral Development Corporation till three years ago.
The state government has also announced a judicial enquiry into the incident, with retired high court judge Anima Hazarika heading the one-person committee. (PTI)
