An incident of land subsidence was reported in the coal mining belt of Andal in West Burdwan district of West Bengal on Wednesday, creating panic and confusion in the area.
The impact of the land subsidence was such that a school building collapsed and was razed to the ground.
There have been frequent reports of land subsidence in the coal mining area in Andal and the adjacent Asansol, Raniganj and Jamuria belts because of illegal and rat-hole mining prevalent in the area by the associates of the coal mafias operating from the region.
However, this is the first time that a school collapsed because of subsidence.
The local residents claimed that Eastern Coalfield Limited, a subsidiary of public sector Coal India Limited, which is mainly responsible for coal mining in the belt, should take responsibility for the mishap.
The ECL officials are, however, tight-lipped about the incident. The area has been cordoned off to prevent people from going near the spot.
In February last year, two persons were killed, and two others were severely injured following land subsidence at an abandoned coal mine of ECL at Raniganj in West Burdwan district.
The local people alleged that although the said open-cast mine was declared as abandoned, adequate precautionary measures were not taken to fill-up the mine with a sand and water mixture to prevent illegal mining there.
Earlier, in October 2023, three persons were killed following a similar incident of land subsidence at ECL’s Narayankuri Mine at Raniganj.
There had long been allegations against ECL about not following the standard operating procedure in the case of abandoned mines.
When regular mining takes place, the coal is excavated, leaving pillars of coal blocks, which act as the support for the roof of the mines.
The coal excavating entity is supposed to fill up the gaps between the pillars after abandoning the mines with sand-soil-water mixture, so that the illegal miners are unable to target those coal-block pillars for illegal excavation.
