NEWS
Indian Army Begins Hand-Digging To Rescue 41 Trapped Workers
After numerous setbacks, Indian military engineers have resolved to excavate by hand from Monday in an attempt to rescue 41 workers who had been stuck in a collapsed road tunnel for 16 days.
Underneath the snow-capped peaks of Uttarakhand in the Himalayan state, soldiers intend to adopt a method known as “rat-hole mining,” excavating by hand to remove the remaining nine metres (29 feet) of rocks and debris.
Last week, engineers working to drive a metal pipe horizontally through 57 metres (187 feet) of rock and concrete ran into metal girders and construction vehicles buried in the earth, snapping a giant earth-boring auger machine.
“The broken parts of the auger (drilling) machine stuck inside the tunnel have been removed,” senior local civil servant Abhishek Ruhela told AFP on Monday, after a specialised superheated plasma cutter was brought in to clear the metal.
“Preparations are being made to start manual drilling work,” he added. “Indian Army engineering battalion personnel, along with other rescue officers, are preparing to do rat-hole mining”.
Engineers in the bitterly cold conditions will use manual drills to clear the route, a tough task in the narrow pipe, just wide enough for a man to crawl through.
Tunnel expert Chris Cooper, who is advising the rescue teams, said he was optimistic the soldiers will be able to dig through.
“It depends on how the ground behaves,” he told reporters, saying they may yet have to cut through heavy-duty girders that had been meant to hold the collapsed roof up. “We are confident that we can overcome it”.
Vertical drilling, constituting a distinct initiative, has penetrated over 25% of the 89-meter depth to reach the trapped individuals through a perilous path in an area previously impacted by a collapse. A drilling apparatus was transported to the wooded hill above the tunnel via a custom-built track.
“Vertical drilling is going on at a fast pace,” with teams having reached 19 metres (63 feet) by late Sunday, said Mahmood Ahmed, a top official in the national roads ministry.
Work is ongoing at “full speed but with caution”, he added.
Digging, blasting and drilling have also begun from the far side of the road tunnel, a much longer third route estimated to be around 480 metres.
The 41 construction workers have been trapped in the Silkyara road tunnel since November 12.
Efforts have been painfully slow, complicated by falling debris and repeated breakdowns of drilling machines.
Hopes that the team was on the verge of a breakthrough on Wednesday were dashed, with a government statement warning of the “challenging Himalayan terrain”.
For the distraught relatives of the trapped men, it has been an ordeal without an imminent end in sight.
But Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami vowed Monday that all the men would be rescued.
“Do not worry, all the labourers will be taken out safely,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
Tuesday marked the first time the workers were spotted alive, when they looked through the endoscopic camera that rescuers had sent down a tiny line that supplies food, drink, power, and air.
Despite being imprisoned, they have plenty of room in the tunnel, which is almost two km long and 8.5 metres high.
Amid discussions of a potential minimum wage increase for workers, the Federal Government is weighing the necessity of a supplementary budget.
Concerns arise as the negotiated amount threatens to exceed the allocated funds in the original 2024 budget, prompting deliberations on fiscal adjustments.
This suggestion was made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its recent staff country report for Nigeria.
“The authorities noted that a supplementary budget may be needed to accommodate the outcome of the ongoing wage structure negotiations which may exceed what they had included in the 2024 budget.
“Staff projects a higher fiscal deficit than anticipated in the 2024 budget, but broadly unchanged from 2023. The drivers are lower oil/gas revenue projections, reflecting IMF oil price forecasts but incorporating recent production gains; higher implicit fuel and electricity subsidies; continued suspension of excise measures included in the MTEF; and higher interest costs.
“Staff factors in an under-execution of capital expenditure in line with past outcomes and estimates an FGN deficit of 4.5 per cent of GDP relative to the 2024 budget target of 3.4 per cent of GDP. For the consolidated government, this implies a projected deficit of 4.7 per cent of GDP in 2024—compared to 4.8 per cent of GDP in 2023 measured from the financing side—which is appropriate given the large social needs and factoring in a realistic pace of revenue mobilisation.
“Over the medium-term, staff projects consolidation in the non-oil primary deficit. With rising interest costs, government debt stabilises towards the end of the projection period.”
The quest for a new minimum wage has been a persistent issue between Organised Labour and the government since the year began, aimed at alleviating the strains of the challenging economic climate.
Recent reforms in Nigeria, such as the removal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the foreign exchange market, have further escalated the cost of living, intensifying the urgency for wage adjustments.
While labour leaders push for a substantial increase from N30,000 to N615,000 as the minimum wage for lowest-ranked workers, indications suggest the tripartite committee may propose a more modest figure of N70,000.
Concerns loom over the sufficiency of the government’s allocated N6.48 trillion for personnel costs in the 2024 budget, with the IMF highlighting potential deficits exacerbated by implicit subsidies and rising debt interest expenses.
However, the Finance Minister Wale Edun had announced the government’s intention to decrease the budget deficit from 6.1 percent in the 2023 budget to 3.8 percent in the current appropriation.
In a bold move, Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State has announced plans to launch a comprehensive inquiry into the governance conducted by his predecessor, Nyesom Wike.
The announcement came on Monday, following the swearing-in ceremony of Dagogo Israel Iboroma, SAN, as the new Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of the state.
Governor Fubara stressed the critical timing of Iboroma’s appointment amidst political tensions and revealed intentions to establish a judicial panel of inquiry to scrutinize governance practices predating his administration.
Fubara said, “So, my brother, Dagogo Iboroma, you are going to be the brand new Attorney-General of our dear State. SSG, give him his letter, he is the Attorney-General.
“Why are we bringing you at this very critical time? We have a lot of issues around us. We believe that you are not going to be the one that when they send service to you, you go and file “nolle prosequi” or you go and file one thing that would kill us here.
“Let me also say this, you have a big task. As it is today in the local parlance, they say the jungle has matured. We will be setting a panel of inquiry to investigate the affair of governance. So, brace up, I am not going back on it.
He added “Please, defend us. We know that you are going to defend us because your record is clean. You are a gentleman and peaceful. You are not a noise maker. People like you are endowed, and they have the fear of God.”
In the midst of political tensions, the faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly aligned with Governor Siminalayi Fubara has conducted the screening and confirmation of legal expert Dagogo Israel Iboroma, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), as the Commissioner-designate.
Led by Speaker Victor Oko Jumbo, the faction endorsed Commissioner-nominee Dagogo Iboroma on Monday, within the Chambers of the Rivers State Government House in Port Harcourt.
Iboroma is poised to assume the role of Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, succeeding Professor Zaccheus Adangor SAN, who resigned upon his redeployment to the Ministry of Special Duties (Governor’s office) two weeks ago.
According to report, Iboroma received an invitation on Sunday, signed by Dr. G.M. Gills-West, the Clerk of the House, summoning him for screening as the Commissioner nominee and potential member of the Rivers State Executive Council.
Recall that last week, Hon. Victor Oko Jumbo, a factional Speaker aligned with Governor Fubara, was elected after Governor Fubara asserted that the Martin Amaewhule-led lawmakers, loyal to Nyesom Wike, Minister of Federal Capital, ceased to be Rivers State lawmakers in the eyes of the law following their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Observers speculate that Governor Fubara is pushing forward to instigate governance activities, with more Commissioner nominees expected to undergo screening by the Victor Oko Jumbo-led three-man Lawmakers.
However, our correspondent highlights that the invitation for screening is already stirring controversies.
In a Facebook post by lawyer Oraye St Franklyn, he raised various legal issues.
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