Monsoon at door, open mines not fenced yet

By Ankita Garg

Keeping in mind frequent drowning incidents at abandoned mines in Bhopal, district administration directed lease owners to barricade quarrying pits and open mines. Despite strict direction to fence the mines allocated around the rural areas of Bhopal before Monsoon, 80 mines are yet to be fenced. In a recent meeting for monsoon preparedness chaired by the district Collector Kaushlendra Vikram Singh, the need for barricading area around open mine was emphasised to avoid such incidents. In the meeting, collector was informed that around 80 old mines are yet to be fenced and all of them have been converted into a pond. However, officially these mines have been closed further digging but during rainfall, water logging makes the mines risky. Concerned over the safety issues, Collector Singh asked officials to complete the fencing of remaining 80 mines by the beginning of June. The Collector had asked the officials of Mineral Corporation to complete the task in given time line.

According to Weather Department, Monsoon is set to drench the State within three days but fencing work could not be done even for a single open mine. NGOs and social activities have also raised the issue and said that during rainy season, who will be responsible for the accidents? Talking to ‘The Hitavada’, Nitin Saxena, RTI activist said, “Every year many people lose their lives in these open mines during rainy season. Every year, we read cases in which people get drowned in the open mines. Even legal clause do not support to leave the open mines while it should be barricade immediately. Government should tighten the noose of officials to fence these open mines on immediate basis.”

According to the district administration, there are more than 170 mines being run in Bhopal under the direction of Mineral Corporation. State Mineral Corporation has granted permission to applicants based on permanent and temporary provisions. Around 80 mine Pattas have been cancelled and after that officials said to fence these 80 mine areas. However, even after several notification, the mine owner failed to follow the orders. District Collector had already given strict warning to the concern team to fence the mines and said to take action against the responsible officer. Collector Kaushlendra Vikram Singh said that most of the drowning incidents were reported during the monsoon when the quarry pits are full of water which attract people for swimming. A senior official of collectorate said on condition of anonymity, “People are unaware of the depth of these pits when they plunge in and this results in drowning incidents.”