One of the houses that was demolished in the recent demolition drive by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) belonged to Vakil Hasan, a rat-hole miner who played a key role in the Uttarakhand tunnel rescue operation last year. The DDA said the demolition carried out on Wednesday was part of a wider effort to remove illegal encroachments in Khajuri Khas area of northeast Delhi.
However, Hassan and other residents argue that they were not given any prior notice. Hassan expressed his despair, saying, “I am lawyer Hassan. The reward we got for saving 41 people from the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand was that our house collapsed. I need help. They caught me and my children And they’re keeping us inside.” a police station. They even beat up some of us.”
Munna Qureshi, another miner involved in the rescue operation, echoed Hasan’s sentiments, saying, “The government had assured us that they would give us the privilege of sitting at home, but they have taken away the house of our team member.”
#Delhi , The house of a miner involved in the Uttarakhand tunnel rescue operation collapsed during a demolition drive by DDA.
(Video: Year) pic.twitter.com/fV8uTnschP
– NDTV (@ndtv) 29 February 2024
The DDA refuted these claims, saying that all residents were given prior notice. Officials also said the land was designated for planned development.
The Silkyara–Barkot tunnel rescue operation received wide recognition for its use of rat-hole mining, a practice banned for safety reasons. Miners including Vakil Khan and Munna Qureshi stepped in after high-tech, imported machines failed during operations in November 2023.
Mr Khan, a rat-hole miner working with the Delhi Engineering Services Company, vividly described the moment of the successful rescue. “They hugged me, clapped and thanked me profusely,” he said after the trapped workers, who had spent 17 days in the tunnel, were successfully rescued.
