A day after the subsidence incident at an illegal mining site in the Dumrijor area of Nirsa block of Dhanbad, rescue work was completed this afternoon with the removal of all debris from the incident site by the coal company BCCL under the supervision of local administration.

No one however was found lying trapped at the site suggesting that those engaged in illegal mining have either remained unhurt and fled away from the site or their family members have fled away along with the dead bodies and injured persons.

The district administration meanwhile initiated the process of plugging the multiple openings of the illegal mining site with the help BCCL team. BJP MLA of Nirsa, Aparna Sengupta, however, protested against the plugging of openings of the site and demanded further continuation of rescue work to ensure that nobody remains trapped at the mining site.

Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner, Sandeep Singh who was present at the spot today along with senior officials of district administration and BCCL said, “Rescue work that began yesterday after the subsidence incident continued for the second day today but despite all efforts, nobody was found trapped at the site.”

“Though some local residents have expressed apprehension that few people are still trapped at the site after subsidence incident but the rescue work besides the survey of the area conducted by BCCL suggested no evidence in favour of that assumption,” said Singh.

“As the incident site falls under the jurisdiction of BCCL where mining used to be carried out till five years ago, we have instructed the BCCL authorities to lodge an FIR in this regard” further said Singh and added that it is the responsibility of the mining company to not allow anyone to carry out illegal mining in their leasehold areas.

The incident also acquired political connotations with the BJP accusing the state government of promoting illegal mining in the state under its patronage.

Former chief minister, Babulal Marandi tweeted that the illegal mining in the state is being carried under the patronage of state government.