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On January 6, 2025, 9 employees have been trapped inside a flooded coal mine in Umrangso. After a gruelling 44-day search and rescue mission involving a number of companies, together with the Indian Navy and the Nationwide Catastrophe Response Drive (NDRF), all 9 our bodies have been recovered — the ultimate 5 on February 19.
Following the catastrophe, the state authorities constituted a judicial fee headed by retired Gauhati Excessive Court docket decide Justice Anima Hazarika. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had assured the general public that the report can be submitted inside three months. Six months on, the report stays underneath wraps.
Daniel Langthasa, convenor of the Sixth Schedule Safety Committee and former member of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC), criticised the delay, calling it a betrayal of the victims’ households.
“The fee was given three months. Six months have handed, however the authorities has not shared the report. There isn’t any replace, and people answerable for the unlawful mining that prompted this tragedy are but to be punished,” Langthasa stated.
Rat-hole coal mining, a primitive, hazardous and banned follow, continues to thrive within the hilly district regardless of a Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT) ban imposed in 2014. A post-tragedy survey revealed that no less than 220 such mines function illegally within the Umrangso space alone.
Langthasa questioned how so many unlawful mines might operate undetected underneath the watch of the NCHAC, which is dominated by the BJP. “How might the council be unaware of 220 mines? That is blatant negligence, if not complicity,” he alleged.
One individual, Punish Nunisa, has thus far been arrested in reference to the incident, however activists concern he’s merely a scapegoat whereas the larger community behind the illicit coal commerce stays untouched.
The Chief Minister had earlier introduced that the Mines and Minerals Division would determine and shut down all unlawful rat-hole mines in coordination with central companies however native communities say no seen progress has been made.
Langthasa additionally linked the mining mafia to wider governance failures within the insurgency-hit district, mentioning an increase in mysterious deaths, kidnappings and drug abuse.
He accused the council of ignoring its mandate to guard tribal land rights, alleging that protected land is quietly being transferred to personal gamers for coke vegetation and different industries with out the consent of native village authorities.
Calling the scenario a “social disaster”, Langthasa warned that continued unlawful mining, unchecked corruption and lack of accountability might push extra youth into medicine and crime.
“Folks commit crimes after they lose hope in these in energy,” he stated.
He urged the state authorities to make the enquiry report public directly, punish these answerable for unlawful rat-hole mining, and guarantee justice for the households of the Umrangso victims and all others who misplaced their lives to unchecked mining within the area.
– Ends
