Uttarkashi tunnel collapse: Rescuers establish communication with trapped workers
Food, water being supplied
Uttarkashi (U'khand) (PTI): Rescuers who worked overnight to rescue around 40 workers trapped after an under-construction tunnel on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri National Highway collapsed here have established contact with them and provided them with food and water, officials said on Monday.
The workers are safe and have asked for food, which is being sent to them, the Silkyara police control room said, adding that communication has been established on walkie-talkies. Food packets have been supplied with the help of compressors, it said.
Dredging and drilling through the debris inside the under-construction tunnel between Silkyara and Dandalgaon is going on to prepare an escape passage for the trapped labourers, according to the district emergency operation centre.
A part of the tunnel collapsed on Sunday morning, leaving around 40 labourers trapped inside. The tunnel is part of the Char Dham all-weather road project.
According to the District Emergency Operation Centre, the labourers are from Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
About 160 personnel of agencies such as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) are trying to rescue the trapped labourers.
Officials on Sunday were optimistic about the safety of the trapped labourers as enough oxygen was made available to them through a water pipeline.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Sunday to enquire about the rescue efforts being carried out.
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BJP has history of ‘contradictory alliances’, says BK Hariprasad
Bengaluru: Congress MLC B. K. Hariprasad has launched a sharp attack on the BJP, accusing the party of hypocrisy over its criticism of alliance politics in Tamil Nadu.
In a post on X on Friday, Hariprasad said BJP leader B. L. Santhosh criticising the Congress party’s alliance politics in Tamil Nadu was “not just laughable, but the height of political contradiction.”
He said the Congress has always joined hands with like-minded parties to protect secular and democratic values in the country.
Hariprasad questioned the BJP over several of its past and present alliances across the country. Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tripura, Bihar and Maharashtra, he accused the BJP of sharing power with parties it had earlier criticised.
He alleged that the BJP had aligned with separatist and corruption-linked political forces in different states for political gains.
“The BJP, which speaks against alliances today, should first look at its own political history,” he said, adding that the party’s record was full of “contradictions and changing stands.”
Hariprasad also accused the BJP of using central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and CBI as political tools to target opposition leaders, topple governments and influence electoral mandates.
He further claimed that the people of Tamil Nadu had strongly rejected the BJP and its ideology in the recent election.
“Congress forms alliances to protect the Constitution, secularism and national unity, while the BJP enters into alliances only for power,” he said.
