Rat-hole miner Wakeel Hassan refuses MIG flat at Dilshad Garden: DDA

PTI, Mar 3, 2024, 8:51 AM IST

The Delhi Development Authority on Saturday said rat-hole miner Wakeel Hassan, whose house was razed in a demolition drive recently, has ”now even refused” to accept a 2-BHK ”MIG flat” of the DDA at Dilshad Garden area, close to his former residence.

Hassan — who was part of the Uttarakhand tunnel rescue operation last year — and his family are currently staying on the street near the rubble left behind after its demolition on February 28.

DDA officials have previously offered Hassan to move to an EWS (economically weaker sections) flat at Narela, which is far from Khajoori Khas in northeast Delhi. Hassan had refused the offer, saying his roots are in Khajoori Khas but the place where he was being offered to live is far and unsafe.

In a statement, the DDA said, ”Wakeel Hassan, a rat-hole miner, whose illegal construction on a government land had been demolished by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on 28.02.2024, has now even refused to take a two-bedroom and a living room MIG flat of DDA in Dilshad Garden, close to his place (site) of residence”.

Hassan was feted for being part of a team that had rescued 41 workers trapped in Uttarkashi’s Silkyara tunnel in November last year.

Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena, as a special measure, ”had asked DDA to provide him with alternate housing free of cost”, the statement said.

The LG had done this, despite the fact that the structure that was razed, was ”illegal and unauthorised” and the DDA had carried out the exercise in a legal manner for claiming public land, it said.

Wakeel, however, rejected the offer to move to a ready-to-move in flat at Narela ”with some unsavoury comments about the location of Narela, where more than three thousands families are already living”, and insisted for an accommodation close to his place where his ”unauthorised residence” stood, the DDA said.

Upon coming to know of this, the LG again ordered for an Indian Red Cross Society-owned 2-BHK DDA flat in Dilshad Garden to be given to him on March 1. Dilshad Garden is in the vicinity of Wakeel’s earlier ”unauthorised house”, the statement said.

However, Wakeel refused to accept this offer as well, it added. Meanwhile, Northeast Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari on Saturday met Hassan at the site of demolition in Khajoori Khas which falls within his constituency.

”Whar has happened is very sad. This is not justice. What has happened is injustice… Those who are guilty will face punishment,” he told a gathering while sitting next to Hassan at the site where his house earlier stood.

To demolish ”one house” in such a locality is ”not in line with justice”, the BJP MP said, adding that the LG has taken cognisance of the matter.

Tiwari said he came to meet Hassan as ”the hero of Uttarakhand tunnel rescue operation was sitting in a tent”. ”Very soon, we will tell the media after arranging a house for him,” he said.