Brief by Shorts91 Newsdesk / 12:54pm on 23 Dec 2023,Saturday India
The 'rat miners' who drilled the final stretch of the collapsed Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand to rescue 41 workers have rejected the state government's Rs 50,000 reward as inadequate. More than two weeks after the tunnel collapse, the miners crawled into tight spaces without safety gear to drill through debris after machines failed. They enabled pipes for trapped workers to escape. Hailed briefly as heroes, the miners returned to dangerous, unrecognized manual labor. At a felicitation by CM Dhami, they accepted but refused to encash the cheques, deeming the rewards symbolic of neglect. Their employer said workers got Rs 1 lakh each while the rescuing miners got half. The miners' rejection highlights their plight despite the risky rescue operation.
