• 18 hours ago
Vakeel Hasan, who saved 41 workers during a rescue operation in Uttarkashi, is now battling for basic support after his home was demolished by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). He and his family are living in a one-room rented accommodation in Northeast Delhi's Shriram Colony close to the rubble where his house once stood. He says political parties had promised him shelter and compensation, but it turned out to be mere lip services. A year after the demolition, he is still waiting for the assistance promised by the government. He is now questioning the value of promises made ahead of the Delhi elections.

Reporter and Camera: Shahnaz Parveen
Editor: Ehraz Zaman

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#DelhiElections2025 #HomelessnessCrisis #DDA #PoliticalPromises #UttarkashiRescueHero #DelhiHousingCrisis #ElectionPromises #GroundReport
Transcript
00:00My husband saved the lives of 41 labourers in the Uttarkashi tunnel.
00:04And to save the lives of 41 labourers,
00:06how many families would have been behind these 41 labourers,
00:09if the counting was done?
00:11How many people sit?
00:13The government is not ashamed of this.
00:15What does the government give us as a reward?
00:17The government gave us this reward,
00:19that in return, they took away the roof over our heads.
00:21Are you all right?
00:24Yes.
00:26Okay, okay.
00:28Is the camera on?
00:30If you are all right, show yourselves to the camera.
00:32Put your hands up.
00:34Whoever smiles, we will reach you soon.
00:36Don't worry.
00:58On 22 November, I received a call from Dehradun.
01:13They said, Hassan, you must have heard the case.
01:1641 people have been trapped in the Uttarkashi tunnel.
01:18You have to get them out.
01:20When they told me, I said, yes, sir, why not?
01:23I will do it. Tell me when I have to leave.
01:25We left at around 7.30 pm.
01:30We went to the tunnel.
01:32We took a look.
01:34We went back at 9.30 pm.
01:36We went inside and saw.
01:38We made a team of 4 people.
01:41All of us will work for 4 hours.
01:43We worked for 27-28 hours.
01:47The next day, at 5.30 pm, we reached them.
01:53We all had tears in our eyes.
01:57They did not belong to our family.
01:59But they were connected to us.
02:02It felt like they belonged to our family.
02:04We were so happy to save them.
02:06Our life was successful.
02:08We did a great job.
02:23Our life was successful.
02:25We did a great job.
02:42My daughter's phone rang at around 10 pm.
02:46She said, mom, DDA people came.
02:49They want to demolish our house.
02:51What can we do?
02:52They are deceiving the children and saying that we are going to meet your father.
02:57Open the gate.
02:58When the children did not open the gate, the children opened the cylinder from inside.
03:02I mean, no matter how they put it, the DDA people went back.
03:06So they broke the gate like this with a hammer, with a hammer, with a gun.
03:10The police and the DDA people together, as if a criminal is hiding inside,
03:15a murderer or rapist is hiding inside.
03:17To get him out, the DDA and the police did so much harm.
03:21My children were standing at the door.
03:23The ladies police came inside beating my son.
03:26When I reached here, within an hour and a half, I came here from Modi Nagar.
03:31And within an hour and a half, they destroyed my entire house.
03:34And after destroying the house, they walled it up hand to hand.
03:38I came directly to the police station.
03:40I mean, they broke my house too.
03:43And after breaking the house, my husband said,
03:45why are you breaking it? What is the reason? Tell me.
03:49So what do they say in that?
03:50That the government is interfering in it, creating obstacles.
03:54They took him to the police station.
03:56If the government is asked, why did you break our house?
04:00Were we a criminal? Did we commit a crime?
04:03This was the crime.
04:05Yes, this was the crime of Wakil Hasan that he saved 41 workers.
04:10He saved his country and the government.
04:14Had it not been for Wakil Hasan's house,
04:16if it had been Sanjay's house or Agarwal's house,
04:19what would have happened?
04:20The government would have made a statue of him,
04:22would have given him a house, would have done everything.
04:29When I came home from the police station,
04:31I remembered all the old scenes of my house.
04:35I remembered everything.
04:37Because no matter how broken it was,
04:39I decorated it and kept pots outside.
04:43Everyone used to say,
04:45that water flows, this and that.
04:48Because cleaning was very important to me.
04:51I saw one thing, that the government has given this reward.
04:56What does the government give us as a reward?
04:58The house that was broken,
05:00the government took it away from us.
05:04For more information, visit www.fema.gov

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