Jaswant Singh Gill

Description

Jaswant Singh Gill, a retired Chief Engineer is remembered as a role model for his brave act of savingthe lives of a number of persons who were trapped in flooded coal mines. S. Gill was posted at that time as the Additional Chief Mining Engineer at Mahavir Colliery of Eastern Coal Field Ltd. in Raniganj area of West Bengal. It was the 13th Day of November, 1989 when miners were breaking coal walls by triggering blasts, when the wall of an underground water table adjacent to where they were working, cracked and water gushed in. There were 220 miners working at the site, 6 of them lost their lives and those closest to the lift were quickly pulled out. However, when 64 miners remained trapped inside, S. Gill immediately rushed into action.

A rescue mission was planned. First, the authorities tried to use pumps to reduce the water level inside the mine. When this didn’t prove too effective, they drilled multiple bore wells to communicate with the miners and to send them food and drinking water. And finally, they drilled another well to send a rescue capsule to pull them out. A 2.5 m tall steel capsule was fabricated on the spot. It was attached to a crane to be lowered into the pit. Jaswant, who was trained in rescue procedures, volunteered to bring the miners back up. He went ahead with the decision despite protests from the authorities on site who didn’t want to risk the life of a senior officer. After being lowered into the pit, he opened the door of the capsule, helped in the first person he could find and signaled to have the capsule raised. He stayed there until every single miner was pulled out. He came out only at the end of the six-hour ordeal. As he finally stepped out of the capsule he was greeted by scores of onlookers who erupted into celebratory applause and carried him on their shoulders. Such a brave and humanitarian act on the part of a Sikh officer raised the heads of all the Sikhs and made them proud. This role-model Gursikh has been honoured many a times for this act of bravery. These honours include Sarvottam Jeewan Raksha Padak by the President of India and a lifetime achievement award by Coal India. Recently he was honoured with Bhagat Puran Singh Award for service to the humanity. The role-model is now living in Amritsar.