The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Wednesday morning demolished the house of one of the Uttarkashi Tunnel rescuers, Vaqeel Hasan.
According to the authority, they conducted the demolition drive to remove encroachment from its acquired land in the village Khajuri Khas in northeast Delhi. The land was part of planned development land, the DDA officials said.
Three months ago, Hasan’s team of rat-hole miners played a starring role in rescuing 41 workers who had been trapped for 17 days in the collapsed Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand.
Twelve people engaged with Hasan’s company — six from Delhi including Hasan, and six from Bulandshahr — were credited with digging through 12 metres of debris during the last stretch to free the trapped miners at Silkyara tunnel.
On Wednesday, after Hasan came home to find it was demolished by the DDA, he told Indian Express, “They (the authorities) came for demolition today morning; my wife and I were not at home, only my children were there. I rushed back, tried telling them not to go ahead, but they didn’t listen.”
Hasan, 45, owns Rockwell Enterprises, the company that employed the “rat-hole” miners.
Hasan claimed his house was the only one targeted in the locality. “There are other houses in the same line, it’s a colony. They said it is DDA land. In the area, only my house was demolished. The registry is from 1987, and we have been living here since 2012. It is an 80 gaj plot,” he said.
In an official statement, the DDA said, “On 28.02.2024, a demolition drive was conducted to remove encroachment from acquired land in village Khajuri Khas. The land was part of planned development land.”