Unable to get the water level down at the rescue operation, Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma details the gravity of situation

Pertaining to the operation that is being carried out to rescue 15 trapped miners in an illegal coal mine in Meghalaya, chief minister of the state, Conrad Sangma spoke to Republic TV. 

Elaborating on the hurdles of the operation the chief minister of Meghalaya told Republic TV how they were unable to get the water levels down, despite efforts.

He said, "The situation was so grave that even after pumping 12 lakh litres of water, the water level only rose 2 feet. Almost multiple pumps were used, as I said the situation was quite difficult. The NDRF was asked to come in as well as the state government. They really tried their best to do. And it is unfortunate that we were not able to get the water level down."  

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"As I said, there was too much water. But we have requested now other agencies to also help. When NDRF is there, it is the top agency in the country that looks at such kind of situations and really as I said the situation was so difficult that we could not save the lives and the operations have been suspended because as I said even after pumping 12 lakh litres of water, the water level only rose," he added 

According to Sangma, other agencies have been asked to provide with advanced equipment to proceed with the operation. 

"So, therefore, we have requested other agencies to give us pumps, which we require almost 100 hp pumps, almost 10-20 pieces. So that in itself is a huge scale. We are working on that and hopefully, we will be able to organize that. As I said nobody thought the situation will be this grave, so difficult and the NDRFas I said and other agencies have tried their best. But now I think it has to be scaled up to a completely different level," he added.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi drew condemned the Central government for failing to provide high-pressure pumps for the rescue, further appealed PM Modi to rescue the miners who have been stuck there for the past 13 days. 

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