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As rescue teams gained momentum in their efforts to save 41 workers trapped for over two weeks in the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi after a part of it collapsed on November 12, Congress on Tuesday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and predicted the latter would welcome the trapped workers with a green flag outside the tunnel. 

The Congress on Tuesday posted a cartoon of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with green flag on X with the caption, "Kuch camera vagera lagwaye, to sahib ke darshan ho jaaye (install some cameras so that we can have a sight of Saheb)".

As the massive 17-day rescue operation in the Silkyara tunnel successfully ended on Wednesday and all 41 workers walked out of the entrapment healthy, the rescuers were in the limelight receiving all the praises for their restless hard work and grit. PM Modi in his message saluted the spirit of all the people associated with the rescue operation and said everyone involved in the mission set an amazing example of humanity and teamwork. Many government agencies with their huge forces were deployed in the unpredictable terrain of the Uttarakhand tunnel 24X7 though the last mile was achieved by the rat-hole miners. And Munna Qureshi who was the first one to reach the workers has been hailed as the hero of the operation.

Munna Qureshi is a 29-year-old rat-hole miner working in a Delhi company -- a trenchless engineering services company that clears sewer and water lines. He was one of the dozens of rat-hole miners who were brought to Uttarakhand on Monday to remove the last 12 metres of debris.

Rat-hole miners were the last resort of the rescue operation after the US-made auger machine was extracted from the tunnel after it went kaput. Rat-hole mining is a method of taking out coal by digging small pits -- but it was banned in 2014 as a coal-extracting method for being unscientific.

Munna Qureshi said he removed the last rock on Tuesday evening and saw the 41 trapped workers. "They hugged me, cheered in applause and thanked me profusely," Munna Qureshi said.

Monu Kumar, Wakeel Khan, Feroz, Parsadi Lodhi and Vipin Rajout were the other rat-hole miners who reached the trapped men subsequently after their arduous operation. The men inside waiting long for a breakthrough from the other side erupted in joy and lifted the miners. "They gave me almonds," one of the miners said. The miners stayed there for half an hour before the NDRF came to take the trapped men.

(With inputs from agencies)

The United States is set to begin a pilot programme for domestic renewal of certain categories of H-1B visas in December, a step that will benefit a significantly large number of Indian technology professionals, a US official has said.

This comes months after the White House announced the plan during the state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June.

In an interview to PTI, Julie Stufft, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services, said, "In India, the demand (for US visas) is still very high. The wait time of six, eight and 12 months is not what we need and (it is) not indicative of how we view India." "We want to make sure that Indian travellers can get appointments as quickly as possible. One way we are doing that is through the domestic visa renewal programme, which is focused very much on India. We are piloting that," she said.

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, at an event on Monday, November 27, drew parallels between Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, describing Mahatma Gandhi as the ‘mahapurush' of the last century and termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the ‘yugpurush' of this century.

Addressing an event dedicated to Jain mystic and philosopher Shrimad Rajchandraji, Jagdeep Dhankhar said, "I would like to tell you one thing, The mahapurush of last century was Mahatma Gandhi. Narendra Modi is the yugpurush of this century."

BJP on Monday said the Congress government in Karnataka has been putting out advertisements in the Telangana media with an eye on the assembly polls in the state, and urged the Election Commission to take action against the party.

A BJP delegation, including Union minister Bhupender Yadav, former minister Prakash Javadekar and party leaders Sudhanshu Trivedi and Om Pathak, submitted a complaint to the EC, saying Congress has violated the Representation of the People Act and the Model Code of Conduct.