The 41 workers, who were pulled out of the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district on Tuesday, were airlifted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-Rishikesh for a health check-up on Wednesday. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami met with each worker personally; he also handed them a cheque of ₹1 lakh each as ‘appreciation’ for remaining motivated and hopeful through the 17 hazardous days.
The Chief Minister also announced ₹50,000 each to the rat-hole miners who manually dug through nearly 18 metres inside the tunnel after all the drilling machines had failed.
“What we gave them is not compensation but appreciation,” Mr. Dhami said adding that it was due to the high moral courage and patience of the workers as well as the tireless hard work of all the agencies and personnel involved in the rescue operation, that a victory was achieved after 17 arduous days.
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“Prime Minister Narendra Modi was constantly keeping an eye on the operation to safely rescue the workers trapped in the tunnel and he was always concerned about the well-being of the workers. Both the Centre and State government’s commitment to saving the precious lives of the workers finally witnessed a fruitful end. The unwavering faith shown by the family members as well as the public, has played an important role in making this extremely complex, challenging, and risky rescue operation successful,” the CM said.
In a briefing regarding the health of the rescued workers, Executive Director and CEO of AIIMS-Rishikesh, Meenu Singh said that the vitals of all the workers are normal.
“We have done some basic preliminary investigations to inspect their electrolytes and to ascertain their blood parameters. The report will be soon come in, and we will also be doing their ECG, just to see if there is any effect on the heart,” Ms. Singh said.
CM Dhami also spoke to the mother of Pushkar, one of the trapped workers who belonged to Uttarakhand’s Tanakpur. “I have fulfilled my promise to you that I will get your son out of the tunnel alive. I will send him home soon,” the CM told the assuaged mother over a phone call.
Meanwhile, the State government organised a special ‘Igaas’ celebrations at the CM’s residence in Dehradun to mark the celebrations of the Silkyara victory. The Chief Minister had also invited the families of the workers to celebrate Deepavali before they took buses to Rishikesh to meet their kin admitted in the AIIMS.
