Will not move from this site: Uttarakhand tunnel rescue hero after spending second night on footpath
New Delhi, Mar 1: "We will not move from this site," says Wakeel Hassan, a rat-hole miner who was part of the Silkyara tunnel rescue operation, sitting on a footpath where he and his family spent their second night after losing their house in a demolition drive.
"My family and I continue to spend the night in the open. Some locals are providing us with food and water, etc.," Hassan said on Friday, a day after he refused an offer by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to move him and his family to an EWS flat in Narela.
"We have now accepted the night as a challenge," he said, adding the family has not received any help from the government so far.
Hassan was part of a team of miners who rescued 41 workers trapped inside Uttarkashi's Silkyara tunnel by manually drilling through the debris in November last year.
His house in northeast Delhi's Khajoori Khas was razed in a demolition drive by the DDA on Wednesday.
He told PTI on Thursday that DDA officials had told him that he would be provided a house but he refused the offer as it was only a "verbal assurance".
Later in the day, he demanded that his house be reconstructed on the same land and threatened to go on a hunger strike if his demand is not met.
While Hassan claims his house was demolished without prior information, the DDA has said he was aware of his house's "status of encroachment" as it had been previously removed in 2016 and the land was encroached upon again in 2017.
The DDA said that "in its role as an authority, it cannot allow encroachment on its land or unauthorised constructions in its development areas".
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Gujarat: Woman taluka panchayat member attacked over 'affair', hair chopped off; one held
Tapi, Oct 20: A woman taluka panchayat member was thrashed and her hair chopped off by a group of people over an alleged affair in Gujarat’s Tapi district following which police arrested one person, an official said on Sunday.
Urmila Gamit of Songadh taluka panchayat was attacked by a woman and three men and beaten with a hockey stick on Saturday evening. The assaulters also cut her hair, said the official from Songadh police station.
The woman was targeted in a public place when she was going home on a two-wheeler with her daughter, the police official said. One of the attackers, identified as Sobhna Gamit, accused Urmila of having illicit relations with her husband.
The men who accompanied Sobhna, including her son, hit Urmila with a hockey stick, causing a fracture in her left arm and injuries in her waist and head, the police said. They also snatched her gold pendant and fled, the police said.
Urmila was taken to a local hospital. On her complaint, police registered an FIR and arrested one accused, the official added.
