Odisha: Piyus Goyal orders probe into Talcher land cave-in incident

Talcher: A day after a portion of land caved in inside a house in the town, Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal yesterday directed a high-level probe into the incident.

The move came after Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan wrote a letter to Goyal yesterday seeking his intervention into the incident.

Taking to Twitter, the Minister said he has ordered a fact finding enquiry into the incident by a team of experts from Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS), Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI) Limited and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited.

“Shri @dpradhanbjp conveyed his concerns about reports of sudden caving in of land in Talcher, Odisha affecting some residential houses. Ordered a fact finding enquiry by a team of experts from DGMS, CMPDIL & MCL on the incident urgently. Interests of local community paramount,” Goyal tweeted.

Shri @dpradhanbjp conveyed his concerns about reports of sudden caving in of land in Talcher, Odisha affecting some residential houses.
Ordered a fact finding enquiry by team of experts from DGMS, CMPDIL & MCL on the incident urgently. Interests of local community paramount.

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) December 6, 2018

On Wednesday evening, a portion of a land caved in a house near the town police station. The hole later developed into a crater triggering panic among the locals.

Angry over this, locals observed a bandh yesterday alleging that the MCL authorities had not filled the Champapasi underground coal mines with sand for which the crater developed.