Ranchi, July 23 -- In Dhanbad's Baghmara block, a tragedy may have struck - but officially, it hasn't.
Nine labourers may be dead, but there are no bodies. A mine may have collapsed, but there is no crater. Grief is palpable, yet invisible. Everyone - from ministers to MLAs, from political opponents
to troubled locals - agrees something horrifying has happened. Yet the police and BCCL management claim nothing has.
The paradox deepens.
Health Minister Irfan Ansari called the incident "a shame on the state," squarely blaming BCCL - the government-owned Bharat Coking Coal Limited.
"Our people are being buried alive while BCCL and the coal mafia do business as usual. Then they whitewash it all as 'illegal mining deaths' and deny compensat...