TMC MP Aparupa concerned over health condition of those trapped

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MP Aparupa Poddar on Sunday expressed concern over the health conditions of three labourers who have been trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi.

Poddar also trained her guns at the BJP-led government in Uttarakhand for not having adequate infrastructure that could have delayed the rescue process. “It is unfortunate that these people have been trapped for so long. Don’t these people have any importance? Aren’t their lives precious? Is not there any infrastructure?” Poddar said.

Poddar met the family members of two Bengal labourers who are from Hooghly. She also said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been inquiring about these trapped labourers from Bengal.

The Bengal government is with the family members of the people trapped in a tunnel in Uttarakhand. A fresh rescue operation started on Sunday. The auger machine’s blades were stuck inside the rubble and a plasma cutter was needed to remove it.

With the auger machine facing repeated troubles delaying the rescue of 41 labourers trapped for the past 13 days inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Saturday said the operations may resume in the “next 24 to 36 hours” as machines are being placed on a platform on top of the tunnel. Briefing the media on the progress of rescue operations, NDMA member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain added that the focus was now on vertical drilling to bring out the workers.

Among those trapped include fifteen from Jharkhand, eight from Uttar Pradesh, five each from Odisha and Bihar, three from Bengal, two each from Uttarakhand and Assam and one from Himachal Pradesh.