Lok Sabha Question No. 4747 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-30
Subject: Jharkhand Coal Mine Collapse
Ministry: COAL
Asked by: DHARAM VIRA GANDHI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COAL LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4747

TO BE ANSWERED ON 30 TH  MARCH, 2017

## Jharkhand Coal Mine Collapse

## 4747. SHRI DHARAM VIRA :

Will the Minister of COAL  be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has taken note of the recent Jharkhand coal mine collapse;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the compensation provided to the families of the eighteen dead miners;
- (c) the details of the rescue operations being carried out to save the trapped miners; and
- (d) the detailed status of the safety audit that will be conducted for the 418 mines in the country along with the time by which the said audit is likely to be completed.

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) IN THE MINISTRY OF COAL, POWER,  NEW  AND  RENEWABLEE  ENERGY  AND  MINES  (SHRI  PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a)&(b):  A mine accident has occurred recently at Rajmahal Opencast Project (OCP) of Eastern Coalfields  Limited  (ECL)  at  Godda  District  of  Jharkhand  on  29 th December,  2016  at  about 7.30PM due  to  collapse  of  old  overburden  (OB)  dump.  While  operation  of  removal  of  loose overburden (OB) material was going on in the northern side of the mine by means of excavators and tippers, a large area measuring 600m x 110m slid down by 30m due to which 12 tippers and 5  excavator  along  with  the  operators  got  buried  under  the  sliding  OB  material  resulting  into fatalities of 23 persons. Out of which till now, 18 bodies could be recovered.

Details  of  compensation  provided  to  the  legal  heirs  /  nominees  of  deceased  contractor workers employees as per the Employee Compensation Act - 2010 are as under:

|   SN | Name of deceased        | Compensation   |
|------|-------------------------|----------------|
|    1 | Late Hari Kishore Yadav | Rs. 8,61,120/- |
|    2 | LateJaved Akhtar        | Rs. 8,96,000/- |
|    3 | LateRajendra Yadav      | Rs. 8,47,160/- |
|    4 | LateSanjay Kr.Sahi      | Rs. 7,78,560/- |
|    5 | LateMd. Nurul           | Rs. 8,61,120/- |
|    6 | LateJai Prakash Rai     | Rs. 7,58,240/- |
|    7 | LateAjit Patel          | Rs. 8,54,280/- |
|    8 | LateSakil Khan          | Rs. 8,61,120/- |

|   SN | Name of deceased        | Compensation   |
|------|-------------------------|----------------|
|    9 | LateVikash Patel        | Rs. 8,39,680/- |
|   10 | LateSunil Bhengra       | Rs. 8,39,680/- |
|   11 | LateAjay Kumar Kushwaha | Rs. 8,96,000/- |
|   12 | LateMd. Julfkar         | Rs. 8,67,640/- |
|   13 | LateMd. Jamir           | Rs. 8,47,160/- |
|   14 | LateRaj Kamal Goswami   | Rs. 8,67,640/- |
|   15 | LateSanjit Viswakarma   | Rs. 8,67,640/- |
|   16 | LateLaddu Yadav         | Rs. 8,31,920/- |
|   17 | LateBrijesh Yadav       | Rs. 8,79,800/- |
|   18 | LateNageshwar Paswan    | Rs. 8,39,680/- |

Apart from the above compensation as per the Employee Compensation Act- 2010, following exgratia  /  additional  amount  were  also  provided  to  the  legal  heirs  /  nominees  of  each  of  the deceased contractor workers:

1. Rs 5 lakhs by ECL.
2. Rs 5 Lakh by the Contractor (M/S MIPL-NKAS (JV)).
3. (c):  All  the  concerned  officials  of  Mine,  Director  General  of  Mines  Safety  (DGMS),  Mine Rescue  Station,  Sitarampur,  Eastern  Coalfields  Ltd  (ECL),    Sanctoria,  Coal  India  Ltd  (CIL), Kolkata,  Ministry  of  Coal,  State  /  District  Administration  and  the  Police  were  informed.  On receiving the information, two Rescue teams from Mines Rescue Station, Sitarampur rushed to Rajmahal OCP with necessary Rescue equipment and reached the site of incidence in the early hours of 30.12.2016. Rescue job under the supervision of senior officials of the Company & the Area and Superintendent (Rescue) was started immediately. Lighting of the area was disrupted and mobile lighting  with  Diesel  generator  was  arranged  and  commissioned.  National  Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams from Patna were also summoned and they reached Rajmahal at about  16:00  hours  on  30.12.2016.  As  the  Rescue  &  Recovery  operation  was  progressing,  18 (eighteen)  bodies  were  recovered  till  05.01.2017.  Further  recovery  operations  were  to  be suspended  due  to  movement  in  strata.  A  detailed  plan  has  been  drawn  to  remove  the  top overburden through benching. This plan has been put up to experts for vetting. After vetting by experts,  approval  of  Director  General  of  Mines  Safety  (DGMS)  has  been  obtained  and preparation of approach road for rehandling of OB has started.
4. (d): Director  General  of  Mines  Safety  has  instructed  the  Deputy  Director  General  of  the respective zones and the nominated owners of all the coal companies to review the condition of slopes both high walls and dumps in open cast mines under the jurisdiction and get the associated risk assessed on top priority basis.

Multi-disciplinary  Inter  Company  teams  have  been  formed  for  carrying  out  thorough safety audit of all mines of CIL. Till 24.03.2017, safety audit have been completed in 345 mines and the balance will be covered  by 15.04.2017.

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