Hero-like treatment will fade out soon: Rat-hole miners

Less than a fortnight after making national headlines for their heroics, having emerged clinical in the otherwise painstaking rescue operation to evacuate 41 workers trapped in an under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand, the 12 “rat-hole miners” feel their newfound fame would wean off rather soon, leaving behind the harsh reality of their lives — “we will remain poor”.

- Amit Bathla

For now, however, they are elated by the accolades pouring in from all corners — just a day ago, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav felicitated them and handed a cheque of ₹1 lakh each to these 12 men.

“It feels good that we are being called by influential people from across the country. Yesterday, Akhilesh ji gave each of us a cheque of ₹1 lakh in Lucknow. Now, we have been called by the team of Indian Idol in Mumbai,” Firoz Qureshi (34) says.

Qureshi was part of the rat-hole miners’ team roped in by authorities in a last-ditch attempt to clear the final 12 metres of the 57m-thick wall of debris that trapped the 41 workers in Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi district for 17 days.