The accident of a coal laden truck at East Jaintia Hills district on Monday that killed four people brought to the fore the failure of the NPP led Meghalaya government to check the illegal mining of coal in the district.

On Monday a truck loaded with about ten tonnes of coal turned turtle near Sutnga area under Khlehriat police station in the district killing four people.

The incident took place at a time when the rescue workers are still struggling to recover the body of at least 14 miners, who got trapped in one of the illegal coal mines in the district in December last year.

The rescuers including the Coal India Limited (CIL) and Kislosker Brothers are pumping out millions of litres of waters every day from the rat hole mine at Ksan in East Jaintia Hills district but failed to trace the bodies of the trapped miners.

The rescuers, who have been working hard to pump out the waters from the mine, could manage to fish out body of only one of the miners, in highly decomposed state.

The rest of the miners who remained trapped inside the flooded mine since December 23 last year are yet to be traced.

“The accident of the coal laden truck under Khlehriat police station on Monday exposes the callousness of the Meghalaya government towards the coal mining. The mining of coal is banned in Meghalaya, so how come ten tonnes of coal come from?” asked a local resident.

“The police are also not revealing the identity of those killed during the incident and trying to cover up the whole episode,” said the resident on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the locals have also questioned the act of flowing the millions of waters pumped out from the rat hole mines to the general area and apprehended that it might lead to another environmental problem in the area.

“The mine water can adversely affect the soil and surface water bodies where it is being poured. Also, it can be health hazard to the people living in vicinity,” said a professor of Environmental Science department of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU).