Trade unions denounce demolition of Uttarakhand tunnel rescue hero's house

New Delhi: A joint platform of 10 central trade unions Friday denounced the demolition of the house of mining expert Wakeel Hassan, who was involved in rescuing 41 labourers who got trapped in an under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand last year.

Hassan's house was razed in a demolition drive by the Delhi Development Authority in northeast Delhi's Khajoori Khas area on Wednesday. Several other houses were demolished during the drive. Hassan spent the night on a footpath with his wife and their two children.

The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions and Federations alleged that Hassan's house was singled out for demolition by the DDA and demanded compensation and residential rehabilitation of the miner.

"Shri Vakil Hasan is that famous rat-hole miner, under whose brave leadership a team of rat-hole miners rescued 41 construction workers who had got trapped and sealed owing to the collapsing of the Silkyara Tunnel under construction at Uttarkashi after all the efforts of rescuing them through all modern machinery completely failed," the unions said.

"It is shocking to note that from among the more than two lakh people residing in that area, only Vakil Hasan's residence, where he has been residing with his family, including three minor children for the last twelve years, was singled out for demolition, that too, without serving any advance notice by the DDA, being run by the central government with the lieutenant governor as its chairman," they said.

The platform also said that Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, also the DDA chairman, should explain the reason and the purpose behind the "singularly targeted and vindictive uprooting operation".

Expressing solidarity and support for Hassan, the trade unions demanded that the DDA and the central government should take corrective action and immediately arrange for compensation as well as residential rehabilitation for his family.

The platform also called upon working people and their trade unions to protest against such "anti-people, inhuman, vindictive actions of the DDA and the central government".

According to DDA officials, hours after razing his house, the agency had offered to move Hassan and his family to an EWS flat in Narela but he declined the offer.

Asserting that it was a "routine encroachment removal drive", the DDA said its action did not "target any particular individual". It clarified that "at no point of time before or during the demolition exercise", were the DDA officials aware of Hassan's role in the rescue operation in Uttarakhand.