Depths of despair

Nothing short of a miracle can bring the 37 people `trapped’ in the Bagdigi coal mine of Bharat Coking Coal Limited back alive. Even after nearly a week, the authorities have not been able to ascertain what exactly has happened to the miners. The divers of the Indian Navy have come and gone after ferreting out just one body. It’s no surprise that the relatives of the `trapped’ men are so agitated over the cavalier attitude of the management that they even gheraoed the divers, necessitating the intervention of the police. The insensitivity of those entrusted with mine safety can be gauged from the fact that minister of state for coal with independent charge N.T. Shanmugham of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) was busy politicking in Tamil Nadu when he should have been overseeing rescue operations. Their fate did not seem to have even crossed his mind when he and the other PMK minister E. Ponnuswamy resigned from the Vajpayee government in search of greener political pastures. With the kind of political cynicismthat prevails in the country, it is no surprise that the lives of some miners do not engage the attention of the powers-that-be. After all, they are not rich and well connected enough to keep the government’s communication channels busy with anxious queries from their relatives around the world. They are like the thousands of poor who perished in the super cyclone that lashed Orissa.

Unlike the Orissa and Gujarat tragedies, the blame for which can, perhaps, be laid at the doors of Nature, the authorities have only themselves to blame for the Bagdigi tragedy. In fact, the incident is so similar to the infamous Chasnala disaster that occurred in the same region in 1979, killing 375 miners. In both the cases safety norms were thrown to the winds when the miners were forced into the deep and cavernous mines. The walls that separated the ill-fated mines from adjoining abandoned and water-filled mines were so thin that when underground blasts were triggered, water gushed in with disastrous effect. Five years ago, a similar disaster occurred in the Geslitand mines, also in the same area, when river water entered the mines drowning 64 people. As there had been several incidents of inundation in the past, the mines safety codes prescribe certain safety procedures to avoid such accidents. It is these procedures that were flouted at Bagdigi.

Safety has never been the watchword for those who managed the coal mine sector. When the mines were nationalised, one of the main objectives of the government was to protect the interests of the miners and save them from exploitative and haphazard mining practices. Unfortunately, the performance of the nationalised coal companies has not been any better in this regard. In the latest instance, the Bagdigi mines authorities were under pressure to produce more coal and that is what forced the colliery manager to walk into the mine and virtually lead the miners from the front. Had the safety of the miners come first, the BCCL would have abandoned the mine, filled it with debris and sealed it a long time ago. But when human life, particularly that of miners, is considered expendable, it is not surprising that the BCCL finds it cheaper to mine the existing, overmined mines, rather than explore new coal veins. In any case, who in this country bothers about safety?