A worker from Bihar, who was rescued along with 40 others from the collapsed Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand after enduring a 17-day ordeal, on Wednesday accused the Nitish Kumar government of apathy.
The workers, who did not wish to be identified, accused the Bihar government of being “indifferent” towards their plight.
All the 41 workers are currently under observation at a community health centre in Chinyalisaur here.
“Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not inquire about our well-being. He did not send his emissaries to our families back home unlike the other state dispensations. A mere assurance from him would have uplifted our confidence, rather he ignored us. We were stranded inside the tunnel for 17 days. State governments of all my colleagues were in constant touch with them,” the worker from Bihar said at the health centre.
He also hit out at Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav for not reaching out to them.
The worker, however, lauded Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and the central government for saving their lives.
All 41 were migrant workers from as many as eight states — 15 from Jharkhand, eight from Uttar Pradesh, five each from Odisha and Bihar, three from West Bengal, two each from Uttarakhand and Assam and one from Himachal Pradesh.