Ranchi | Jan 13, 2017: The Director General of Mines Safety (DGMS) on Thursday informed the state High Court that it did not issue any clearance to Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) to continue mining activity in the latter’s Lalmatia coal mine in Godda.

Responding to a public interest litigation on the Lalmatia accident in the presence of acting chief justice Pradip Kumar Mohanty and justice Anand Sen, the DGMS, through its attorney, said the mine safety inspection team had found the mine unfit for excavation. The team had conducted an inspection three months prior to the accident.

Following this, the division bench directed DGMS to file an affidavit on the number of contractual miners who were working in the mine at the time of the accident. “The bench also directed the DGMS to furnish details of those who died, injured and are missing in the accident,” Sinha told TOI.

The bench also asked the ECL attorney about the compensation paid to the kin of the deceased contractual miners. “Is Rs 5 lakh enough for a man’s life?” the bench questioned, after ECL said the central PSU had paid Rs 5 lakh to the families. To this, the ECL attorney replied that each family will be paid Rs 20 lakh by ECL, Mahalxmi Company and state government.

(Source: http://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/)