Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday interacted virtually with Indian Air Force, Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel and teams of local administration and civil society who were involved in the rescue operations of the Deoghar ropeway accident in Jharkhand and thanked them for their courage and valour. The operation had gone for over 40 hours in which over 60 stranded tourists in cable cars were rescued while three, including two women, had died.
The Prime Minister first spoke to NDRF Sub-Inspector Om Prakash Goswami who briefed Mr. Modi about this “difficult rescue operation”. Mr Modi then interacted with IAF official group captain Y.K. Kandhankar, Garud Commando Pankaj Kumar Rana and praised their “unprecedented courage” during the rescue operation. The Prime Minister spoke with ropeway employee Pannalal Joshi, who, along with a group of local civilians, was sitting with BJP’s Godda MP Nishikant Dubey and asked Mr. Joshi, “have you got any training for such difficult rescue operations?”. Mr. Joshi explained how he along with his colleague Govind Singh rescued 11 trapped passengers on the first night of the accident on April 10.
ITBP sub-Inspector Anand Kumar Pandey, Army Brigadier Kulbir Singh and Deoghar Deputy Commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri too interacted virtually with the Prime Minister and explained their experiences of the rescue operation. “Before the IAF team reached the spot we had planned every detail on the ground which helped them in chalking out their rescue operations. We also used drones to provide food and other stuffs to those trapped inside the cable cars during night”, said Mr. Bhajantri. Mr. Modi said, “your patience and perseverance during the rescue operations are priceless”.
