A senior road ministry official on Wednesday said that the 4.5 kilometres long Silkyara tunnel project in Uttarakhand, which is a part of the central government’s strategic 900-km Char Dham Yatra All Weather Road will continue after the necessary safety audit and repair of the broken structure. The project aims to provide all-weather connectivity to four holy towns Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath in Uttarakhand.

On Tuesday, a rescue team  pulled out all 41 workers trapped under the collapsed portion of the under-construction Silkyara tunnel in a multi-agency operation. An official who was also a part of the rescue team said that the safety audit of the Silkyara tunnel will be conducted and efforts will be made to repair and rectify the broken structure. He added that the necessary precautions will be taken and the 4.5 km long tunnel project will continue.

Zojila Tunnel Project head Harpal Singh said there could be several possible reasons for the collapse of the Silkyara tunnel. He explained that the collapse could be due to poor geological investigation, under-designed ground support systems, mistakes during construction, poor data monitoring and mitigation measures during construction or poor supervision control.

Notably in 2021, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari had termed allegations that the Char Dham road project triggered landslides in Uttarakhand as misinformation and asserted that the government is sensitive about ecology and environment while carrying out development projects.

Meanwhile, a 2019 report headed by veteran environmentalist Ravi Chopra described the Char Dham project, which is an ongoing road project that will connect the four important pilgrim towns of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri as an assault on the Himalayas. In this view, the committee recommended limiting the width of the road to 5.5 metres on the Char Dham project. 

Nonetheless, in December 2021, the Supreme Court in its order allowed the road width to 10 metres. The top court allowed double-lane widening of the Char Dham highway project in Uttarakhand, ruling that the country’s security concerns may change over time and the recent past has thrown serious national security challenges.

On December 27, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the Char Dham Yatra All Weather Road Project. The original deadline of the project was March 2020.

Union Home Minster Amit Shah on Wednesday said the Narendra Modi government will implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and no one can stop it. He was addressing a rally in Kolkata to launch the BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign. Shah said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been unable to stop infiltration in West Bengal.

Shah said voter and Aadhar cards are being openly and illegally distributed to infiltrators in the state. He asked if development ever going to take place in Bengal? He said this is the reason Mamata Banerjee is opposing CAA. Shah said CAA is the law of the country and no one can stop it.

CAA was passed by the Indian parliament in 2020. CAA offers citizenship to religious minorities who entered India through Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan before 2015. According to the Trinamool Congress the CAA is unconstitutional as it excludes Muslims and links citizenship to faith in a secular country.

The Centre had said the process for making news laws for CAA is going to start soon. Union Minister of state for home affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra had said the rules for CAA will be framed by March 30, 2024. Shah in his address at the esplanade said Banerjee government and the communists have ruined the state of Bengal. He said figures suggested election violence is the highest in Bengal all over India.

The home minister was confident the Bharatiya Janta Party will form government in Bengal with two thirds majority in the state elections in 2026. Shah urged the people of Bengal to ensure BJP wins with flying colours in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He requested the people to make PM Modiji the prime minister again. The BJP had won 18 seats which is the highest ever of the state’s 42 seats in the last state elections in 2019.  

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday has approved a central scheme for providing drones to 15,000 women Self Help Groups (SHGs), with an outlay of Rs 1,261 crore for two years beginning 2024-25 fiscal year.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said that a decision in this regard was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. The Union Minister said that the scheme aims to provide drones to 15,000 selected women self help groups during the period 2024-25 to 2025-2026 for providing rental services to farmers for agriculture purposes.

An official release stated that the approved initiatives under the scheme will provide sustainable business and livelihood support to 15,000 self help groups and they would be able to earn additional income of at least Rs 1,00,000 per annum.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur told the media that this scheme is important as part of PM Modi’s lakhpati didi initiative. He added that drones play a key role in the services sector and that there are about 10 crore women who are part of some Self Help Groups. Under this drone scheme, it has been ensured that the use of technology in farming drones will improve efficiency in spraying fertilisers and pesticides.

In addition, a five-day mandatory drone pilot training and additional 10-day training for agriculture purposes of nutrient and pesticide application are to be provided to one member of self help groups.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced empowering self help groups with drone technology from the Red Fort in his Independence Day speech on August 15, while pitching for leveraging the potential of science and technology in rural development.

Meanwhile, the Union cabinet also approved that the Central government will provide free grains to eligible citizens under the public distribution scheme for another five years.