Fresh attempt to rescue workers trapped in Uttarkashi tunnel, new machine drilling escape passage
Uttarkashi (PTI): A heavy-duty drilling machine flown in by the IAF from Delhi began boring through the rubble of a collapsed tunnel on the Char Dham route in Uttarakhand Thursday, in a fresh attempt to create an escape passage for 40 workers trapped inside for four days.
Workers outside the Silkyara tunnel performed a puja before the America-made auger machine began work.
Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways V K Singh had arrived at the site to take stock of the rescue operation when the drilling by the new machine began.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) had flown in the equipment in parts on their C-130 Hercules transport planes to an airstrip 30 kilometres away, after previous efforts to insert steel pipes into the rubble with the help of a smaller auger machine failed.
"I have been told that the new drilling machine has already penetrated 5-7 metres through the debris. We hope it would soon reach the trapped workers, drilling at the rate of 5-10 metres every hour," Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami told reporters in Dehradun.
Officials had earlier said that a 30-40 metre stretch of the under-construction had collapsed on Sunday. The collapsed section is 270 metres from the mouth of the tunnel from the Silkyara side.
The workers are stranded on the other side of debris. They are safe, and being provided with oxygen, electricity, medicines, food items and water through pipes, Navayuga Engineering Company's spokesperson G L Nath said. The company is building the tunnel on behalf of the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL).
Sections of mild steel pipes of 800-mm and 900-mm diameter will be inserted -- one after the other -- into the drilled passage. Once this happens, the workers trapped inside can crawl out to safety.
A six-bed makeshift health facility has been set up and 10 ambulances with expert doctors stationed outside the tunnel to provide immediate medical care to the trapped workers after their evacuation, officials said.
The state government is providing all support to the technical experts supervising the rescue operations on the spot, Dhami said and added that they are in touch with international specialists.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is constantly monitoring the situation.
The Uttarakhand government has decided to review all under-construction tunnels in the state, Dhami said.
"We need such tunnels and many of them are being built in the state. We will review wherever they are being constructed," he said.
The auger machine was flown in after the first drilling machine turned out to be too slow and technical issues developed, the officials said. Also, falling debris inside the tunnel damaged the first equipment and injured two rescue workers on Tuesday.
The 25-ton new auger machine has a capacity to drill 4-5 metres per hour, NHIDCL Director Anshu Manish Khalkho said earlier. After being brought to the site, the machine was installed through the night and made operational on Thursday.
The portion of the tunnel, part of the ambitious Char Dham all-weather road project, collapsed due to a landslide on Sunday.
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36 ex-judges slam Opposition move to impeach Justice Swaminathan
New Delhi (PTI): Thirty-six former judges on Saturday gave a call to people, including parliamentarians, to denounce opposition leaders' move to impeach Madras High Court judge Justice G R Swaminathan, saying such an attempt, if allowed to proceed, would cut at the very roots of democracy and independence of the judiciary.
On December 1, Justice Swaminathan held that the Arulmighu Subramania Swamy Temple was duty-bound to light the lamp at the Deepathoon, in addition to the customary lighting near the Uchi Pillaiyar Mandapam.
The single-judge bench said that doing so would not encroach upon the rights of the adjacent dargah or the Muslim community.
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The order sparked a row, and on December 9, several opposition MPs, led by the DMK, submitted a notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to move a motion for the removal of the judge.
Taking serious exception to the move, the former judges in a joint statement said this is a "brazen attempt to browbeat judges who do not fall in line with the ideological and political expectations of a particular section of society".
"If such an attempt is permitted to proceed, it would cut at the very roots of our democracy and the independence of the judiciary," they said.
"We therefore call upon all stakeholders -- Members of Parliament across party lines, members of the Bar, civil society, and citizens at large -- to unequivocally denounce this move and ensure that it is nipped in the bud at the very inception," they added.
The statement emphasised that the judges must remain answerable to their oath and to the Constitution of India, not to "partisan political pressures or ideological intimidation".
"The message from all constitutional stakeholders must be clear and firm: in a republic governed by the rule of law, judgments are tested by appeals and legal critique, and not by threats of impeachment for political nonconformity," it said.
The statement was signed by former Supreme Court judge Krishn Murari J as well as ex-chief justices and former judges of different high courts.
The statement said the opposition party's move is not an "isolated aberration". It fits into a "clear and deeply troubling pattern" in India's recent constitutional history, where sections of the political class have sought to discredit and intimidate the higher judiciary whenever outcomes do not align with their interests, it added.
"The unprecedented bid in 2018 to initiate impeachment proceedings against then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, the sustained campaigns of vilification directed at Chief Justices Ranjan Gogoi, S A Bobde and D Y Chandrachud while they were in office," the statement noted.
"The targeted attacks now being mounted against the incumbent CJI, Justice Surya Kant, whenever a judgment/remark displeases a political constituency, are all manifestations of the same trend," it said.
"This is not principled, reasoned criticism of judicial decisions; it is an attempt to weaponise impeachment and public calumny as instruments of pressure -- a practice that strikes at the heart of judicial independence and the basic norms of constitutional democracy," the statement added.
