Building a Wider
Horizon With Labour
The tragedy occurred on the evening of 29 December when the overburden dump at Lalmatia mine slid 35 metres, trapping workers and excavation equipment, including around 26 Volvo trucks, under an estimated 9.5 million cubic meters of earth. The mine is part of the Rajmahal open cast mining project operated by public-owned company Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL), which is a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, one of the largest state-owned mining corporations in the world. The National Disaster Response Force reached the accident site after about 17 hours and is still engaged in rescue operations. Most of the trapped workers are contract workers, employed by an outsourced company, Mahalaxmi Private Limited. According to reports, just a few days before the tragedy took place, workers refused to work due to lack of safety measures. However, the company ignored all warning signs of minor mudslides in the weeks and days before the incident and forced workers to continue. The company does not have a list of workers who were engaged at the time of the incident and so far there has been no final confirmation of the number of workers who have died or been injured.
