Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Thursday assured that the rat hole miner, who was feted for saving 41 workers trapped in Uttarkashi’s Silkyara tunnel with his team last year, will be provided with a new house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna.
The announcement comes after the house of miner Wakeel Hassan was razed down by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) at Khajuri Khas during an anti-encroachment drive on Wednesday.
Speaking at the sidelines of an event in north east Delhi, Saxena noted, “The rat miner will be provided with a house soon.”
Lok Sabha MP from the constituency, Manoj Tiwari also gave a similar assurance to Hassan. He said there were some legality issues with regard to the miner’s house, but there have been talks on the matter and he will be provided a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna.
Taking a dig at the Centre over the incident, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said the agency that works under the Union government demolished the house of the rat miner. He said people like the miner are left on roads without any alternatives.
A devastated Hassan had told reporters that he was clueless as to where he should now take his children.
“We rescued 41 people in the Silkyara tunnel and in return we got this. Earlier, I had requested the authorities and the government to give this house to us but to no avail. Today, without any information, DDA came and demolished it,” Hassan alleged.
The DDA said the demolition drive was carried out on land that was “part of planned development land”. Police said several structures built illegally were demolished during the drive.
Hassan and five other members of the rat-hole mining team live in north-east Delhi’s Khajoori Khas, while the rest are from Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr.
Their special mining techniques were crucial in removing the rubble inside the under-construction Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand. Forty-one workers got trapped when a part of the tunnel collapsed on November 12 last year and remained trapped for around 17 days before being rescued.