Rescuers break through Silkyara tunnel rubble, end of ordeal for 41 trapped workers
Uttarkashi (PTI): Rescue workers on Tuesday drilled through the 60-metre stretch of rubble of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in which 41 workers are trapped for the last 16 days, officials said.
State government's information department chief Bansi Dhar Tiwari told reporters a little after 1.30 pm that the drilling was over.
Less than an hour later, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the process of laying the escape pipe into the drilled passage was complete. "Soon all brother workers will be brought out," he posted on social media.
Earlier, NHIDCL managing director Mahmood Ahmed did not immediately confirm that the drilling work was over. He told reporters that the last section of the pipe was being pushed through.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel were expected to enter the steel chute pushed into the drilled passage over the past several days and then bring out the workers one-by-one.
Going by the practised drill, each worker will lie down on a wheeled stretcher that would be pulled by rescue workers outside using ropes. This was expected to take about two or three hours.
Anticipation had been building up at the disaster site on the Char Dham route hours before the news broke outside.
Ambulances were lining up at the mouth of the tunnel to rush the rescued workers as they are brought of the steel chute one by one to a community health centre.
A stretch of mud road was re-laid to make passage of ambulances easier. Stretchers were being taken inside the mouth of the tunnel.
As the information about the "breakthrough" emerged, some workers outside chanted "Jai Shri Ram".
Earlier, L&T team leader Chris Cooper predicted an early end to the workers' ordeal. "It is likely that they will be out before 5 pm," he told reporters. He said vertical drilling, the simultaneous drilling operation to reach the workers from above the tunnel, had now been called off.
Officials decided to switch to manual boring to break through the last 10 metres of the rubble after the heavy-duty auger drilling machine got stuck in the rubble on Friday.
Twelve rat-hole mining experts were called in to finish the last stretch of drilling using hand-held tools in a confined space.
Waiting at the tunnel site to see his 22-year-old son Manjit, Chaudhry said officials had told the families camping in Silkyara that arrangements will be made for them wherever the workers are taken after evacuation.
"Even, nature looks cheerful today," Jaimal Singh said as he waited for his brother Gabbar Singh's evacuation.
"We have been asked to keep our belongings rolled up and wait for further instructions," he said.
A special ward with 41 oxygen-supported beds was readied days earlier at the community health centre in Chinyalisaur, about 30 km from Silkyara, for the rescued workers.
Doctors were standing by and arrangements made to fly the workers to more advanced hospitals, if needed.
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Karnataka School Edu Dept prohibits children from being made to dance to obscene songs
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka School Education Department has issued a circular strictly prohibiting children from being made to dance to obscene songs in educational and cultural programmes.
It stated that such dances would negatively impact students' mental health and moral values. It will create indiscipline and harm the sanctity of education.
"All the Deputy Directors (Administration) of the state's School Education Department have been asked to take strict measures to prevent children or students from dancing to obscene songs in all government, aided and unaided schools in the state," the office of the commissioner of the School Education Department said in a recent circular.
"If it is found that children are being made to dance to obscene songs, appropriate action will be taken against the headmaster or management of such school," it added.
The department also listed certain measures in this regard, which include: strictly prohibiting children from being made to dance to obscene songs during educational and cultural programmes; selecting songs that are inspiring, positive, instilling national pride in children and reflecting the greatness, dignity, values, culture, and morality of the state.
Stating that the school headmaster and management are responsible for selecting songs and dances for cultural programmes, it said, they should also ensure that students wear decent clothes in dance or cultural programmes.
