Durgapur , 28 Mar. 04 : A shovel operator Tarak Gop (43) went under ground as a result of a sudden land slide at Jambad colliery in Andal P.S. area, Burdwan, this morning while showing subsidence prone pockets to his superior bosses. The ill fated ECL worker helped surviving his superiors with a whopping shove during the slide but could not rescue himself.

The shovel operator who used to drive a huge coal-cutting machine was feeling discomfort while driving the machine and he felt that the area was posing a threat of a large-scale subsidence. He appealed the concerned Kajora area General Manager, the manager of the Jambad project and the mine custodian agent yesterday to stop further operation in that area to prevent a disaster. The GM along with the top officials made a quick response to the miners’ call and went to inspect the area. Tarak Gop was guiding them and at around 10.15 a.m. when they were visiting the north part of the project, there was a sudden subsidence and the land started caving in. The miner however rescued his senior officials but could not rescue himself. He was dragged down and was buried under the debris.

The matter virtually perplexed the officials who too broke in to tears. As stated Mr. Sinha, ‘how come I accept the fate of the worker who went to convince us that further mining was dangerous in that area? We became mere helpless spectators of the tragic scene that he was going down and had nothing to do. He saved our lives by sacrificing his own.’ Gop went 40 feet below the surface level and was pressed under the overburden. This was first such instance since after nationalization of coalmines, explained trade union leaders like Mr. Sukumar Banerjee of INTUC and Mr. Probir Mondal of CITU. Mr. Sinha and his executive colleagues Mr. M.K. Rao and Mr. Joydeb Dan looked completely shattered with the intensity of the incident.