Wednesday, 29 November 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Questioning the hesitancy shown by the administration in registering cases against those responsible for the collapse of the tunnel at Silkyara in Uttarkashi the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara has demanded an inquiry in the incident. Congratulating the rescue workers and engineers engaged in the operation for the success achieved by them amid tough conditions, the PCC president said that the patience shown by the trapped workers and their relatives during the entire operation was exemplary.
He said that the State government should provide financial assistance to all the workers.
Mahara said that the options on which the rescue operations were carried forward after 14 days of the incident should have been employed earlier. He said that the Congress party was consistently pointing towards lack of coordination between local administration, central agencies and NHIDCL from the day due to which the rescue operation was stretched. Mahara claimed that the experience of local experts and scientists such as former director of Survey of India PC Nawani, Professor Shekhar Pathak and Professor SP Sati was not used by the government in the rescue operation. Their experience should have prevented the work execution agency from undertaking careless and dangerous construction works. Taking a dig at the Char Dham all weather road project, Mahara said that the DPRs were prepared by private agencies and their approvals were also done by them. He alleged that the essential Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the all weather project was bypassed.
The PCC president said that though the Adani group has denied news reports that it owns the Navayuga engineering company engaged in construction of 4.5 kilometre Silkyara tunnel the fact should come out. He pointed out that the Adani group has only denied and has not taken any legal action on the news portal which creates suspicion. A news portal had claimed that the Adani group had purchased 75 per cent shares of Navayuga in the year 2021 and 25 per cent in 2022.
Congress MLA Adesh Chauhan said that the law and order situation in Udham Singh Nagar district has deteriorated from bad to worse. He said that the State government is planning to hand over the mining sector to the private players which will ensure open loot of resources.
The spokesperson of Uttarakhand Congress Adesh Chauhan, Mahanagar president Jaswinder Singh Gogi and Amarjeet Singh were present on the occasion.
