Durgapur, Feb. 21: Despite Union coal and mines minister Mamata Banerjee’s assurance to improve safety in coal mines, a 40-year-old miner, Mahesh Rajbhar, died of suffocation at Eastern Coalfield Limited’s Shyamsundar colliery early today.

Rajbhar died due to suffocation as the ventilation fan in the mine had been defunct for the past one-and-a-half months. The miner fell sick while working in the night shift and died around 3 am.

The incident caused panic among the other workers, who stopped lifting coal as a mark of protest against the “authorities’ negligence and failure to repair the defunct fan on time”.

Pradip Bhattacharjee, one of the agitated workers, said: “The fan has been out of order for a long time but no one bothered to repair it. We have been working in the mine at a great risk and suffering from breathing problems.”