Rahul Gandhi calls on Narendra Modi to save trapped miners in Meghalaya instead of 'strutting about' on Bogibeel Bridge

In a fresh attack on the Centre, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to focus his attention from “posing for cameras” to the 15 miners trapped in a 370-foot-deep illegal coal mine in Meghalaya.

In a tweet, Rahul said:

15 miners have been struggling for air in a flooded coal mine for two weeks.

Meanwhile, PM struts about on Bogibeel Bridge posing for cameras.

His government refuses to organise high pressure pumps for the rescue.

PM please save the miners. https://t.co/STZS62vTp4

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 26, 2018

His reference was to the prime minister on Tuesday inaugurating the 4.9-kilometre-long Bogibeel Bridge over the Brahmaputra river to inaugurate the project in Assam, which took nearly two decades and $800 million to complete. The  Bogibeel bridge , which was a part of the Assam Accord and sanctioned in 1997-1998, is likely to play a crucial role in defence movement along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.

Meanwhile, authorities in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district on Monday temporarily suspended operations to rescue the 15 miners, who have been trapped in an illegal coal mine in Ksan area of Lumthari village since 13 December. The miners were trapped in the after water from nearby Lytein River gushed into the mine.

“Around 100 members of the national and state disaster response forces, along with the police, are waiting for the water to recede to around 30 feet as divers can do their job once the water level subsides to that level,” Superintendent of Police Sylvester Nongtynger said.

Rahul wrote that the Modi-led government “refuses to organise high-pressure pumps for the rescue,” and called on the prime minister to “save the miners.”

With inputs from agencies