NEW DELHI: They are the “dirty diggers of Delhi,” though what they do was actually banned in 2014 by the national environment watchdog, the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The job is such: laying down narrow sewer lines and pipelines for the Delhi Jal Board. However, after the heroics of these rat-hole miners — six of the 12 from Delhi — in rescuing 41 miners from the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, Delhi politicians have rushed in to felicitate them.
When the American auger machine wore off after overexposure, these miners had to push in inch-by-inch to reach the isolated miners. “We worked continuously for 36 hours without sleep or rest and finally reached the 41 people trapped in the tunnel,” a statement issued on behalf of the miners quoted one of them as saying.
Mission accomplished, the six landed back in Delhi on Thursday. On Friday, they were felicitated by CM Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP colleagues and later in the evening, a BJP delegation also met and greeted them.“You risked your lives, worked day and night, and saved 41 lives. The world is very selfish; nobody thinks about anyone else. However, in this world, there are people like you,” said Kejriwal.
“They work for a pittance and wait for the day they’d strike gold. That day never comes,” said a DJB official. But in this case, loads of appreciation came from all sides — from ruling party AAP and Opposition BJP and Congress. Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva and party MP Manoj Tiwari met them and announced a cash reward of Rs 25,000 to each of 6 of them — Vakil Hassan, Munna Quershi, Rashid Ansari, Naseem Mallik, Irshad Ansari and Feroze Quereshi. Earlier on Thursday a Delhi Congress team welcomed the six labourers.