Dima Hasao, Assam, leads seal-rat-hole coal mines campaign.
• Police and local authorities in Dima Hasao district are sealing all rat-hole mines and seizing equipment.
• The move is in response to the flooding of a 90-metre-deep rat-hole coal mine on January 6, trapping nine miners.
• The bodies of four miners were retrieved by January 10, but five others remain untraced.
• About 220 rat-hole mines were detected in the district’s Umrangso area, bordering Meghalaya.
• 11 persons have been arrested in connection with the January 6 mishap.
• The ill-fated mine, believed to be interlinked with three abandoned mines, still has over 10 crore litres of water.
• The Chief Minister has stated it might take up to 60 days to suck the water out of the mines.