New Delhi
The Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday that although congress praised the entire rescue team, including the rat miners, for freeing the 41 trapped workers from Uttarakhand’s Silkyara tunnel, the incident also demonstrated the shortcomings of the environmental appraisal process in terms of organizing, planning, and carrying out projects related to civil construction and other projects in the Western Himalayan region.
The Congress further demanded that all upcoming projects in the Himalayan region be put on hold and subject to expert ecological scrutiny, as well as a comprehensive audit of all currently underway projects.
The head of Congress stated that we should take a moment to reflect on the trauma that these 41 workers have endured over the course of 17 days. He added that the words Prakruti Rakshati Rakshata are written on the door of the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, which was established more than ten years ago.
His comments were made the day after a massive 17-day operation involving numerous agencies and experts successfully freed all 41 trapped workers from the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi. To free the stranded laborers, even the rat miners had to physically excavate the rubble. On a war footing, relief and rescue operations were conducted by scientists, global specialists, NDRF, SDRF, and BRO. On November 12, a tunnel that was still under construction in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, collapsed, trapping 41 laborers.
