Disaster response is shocking

There is reason to fear the worst for the 15 miners trapped since December 13 in a “rat-hole” coal mine in the East Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya, which was getting inundated with water seeping through from the nearby Lytein river. The National Disaster Response Force has done singularly little to save the trapped men. The two 25-horsepower suction pumps available with the rescue team were spectacularly inadequate for the task at hand, and since December 17 nothing at all has been done by the NDRF, apart from sending divers to locate the men, dead or alive. Two days ago, the divers experienced a “foul odour” in the water, and that is not a good sign.

The state government of the National People’s Party, which is in a coalition with the BJP, was apparently requested to make available 100-horsepower pumps to drain the water from the river which had crept into the mine. But the request has fallen on deaf ears. No explanations have been proffered by the state authorities or the NDRF, a national institution created to be effective in precisely such difficult situations. If the state government was being caught up in red tape, the NDRF could have flown in the needed pumps on a rental or purchase basis.

At the end of the day, precious human lives are feared lost, with a body like the NDRF twiddling its thumbs. This has to be in clear violation of its mandate. Will this have happened if influential persons had been trapped? The Central ministry in charge of the NDRF must answer questions.