Dhanbad, June 24: The management of Godavarikhani mines in Andhra Pradesh, where 17 miners died last week, did not obtain the statutory permission from the Directorate General of Mine Safety to undertake mining operation, DGMS director Ravindra Sharma said today. The DGMS came to know about this fact after an on-the-spot inquiry into the tragedy in which 17 workers met with a watery grave, Sharma told reporters here on return from his visit to Godavarikhani.
Detailed report about the inquiry findings would be submitted to the centre within a month, he said adding as per preliminary reports the mine management could not escape the blame for the tragedy. Four senior officials of the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) were already suspended after a preliminary enquiry found them negligent in following necessary safety norms.
Sharma said the officials responsible for the tragedy already admitted their 'faults'. SCCL's chief general manager (safety) P P R Vittal earlier said in Andhra Pradesh the gap between the roof and the sand in the previously filled section of the mine could have led to accumulation of water and led to the death of the miners in the June 16 tragedy, at Godavarikhani, 70 km from Karimnagar.
It is first time in the 100-year-old history of state-run Singareni Collieries that such inundation occurred in the underground mine. Bureau Report