Make rescue of miners 1st priority: Rahul to Meghalaya govt

Congress president Rahul Gandhi made a fervent appeal to the Meghalaya government on Friday to make as a first priority the rescue of the people who are trapped in a coal mine for more than a month.

"I am very pained at learning about the news of the death of a trapped miner in Meghalaya's coal mines. Many of our labourers are struck there.

"I appeal to the government to make this their first priority. The families of the trapped labour force are waiting for their safe return. I pray to God for their safe return to homes," Gandhi said in a Facebook post in Hindi.

Navy divers had found a body of one of the 15 trapped miners and also spotted several skeletons in the flooded rat-hole coal mine in East Jaintia Hills district on Thursday, weeks after a multi-agency search operation was launched to rescue them, officials said.

Around 15 miners remain trapped in the mine since December 13 after water from a nearby river gushed in. The rescue efforts picked up days later when several agencies were roped in as the rescuers were struggling to pump out water from the mines.