AMRITSAR: The family of Engineer Jaswant Singh Gill who had saved the lives of 65 miners, today expressed gratitude to the management of the Indian Institute of Technology/ Indian School of Mining (IIT-ISM), a premier institute in Dhanbad, (Jharkhand) for announcing a national award on the name of Gill posthumously.
Addressing the media persons here today, Gill’s wife Mrs. Nirdosh Kaur and son Dr. Sarpreet Singh Gill said that IIT-ISM Institute has instituted “Jaswant Singh Gill Memorial Industrial Safety Excellence Award” for Indian Citizen(s) (One award per year w.e.f. 2020), which aims at promoting innovative technology development and application under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan for improving safety standards in Indian Industry. The award comprises a plaque, citation, and a prize worth Rs. 50, 000.
The award was constituted to give befitting recognition the bravery of Gill, who had put his life in danger to rescue 65 coal miners, trapped in the flooded Mahavir Coal mine in Raniganj area of West Bengal on November 13, 1989.
Family said Er. Gill born and brought up in Amritsar, did his BSc non-medical from Khalsa College in 1959.
Throwing light on the life of Mr. Gill, Family said that Mr. Gill had nobody was knowing, one day Jaswant Singh son of humble postmaster Daswandha Singh Gill would be able to receive 'Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak' by the President of India R. Venkatraghavan the highest civilian bravery award of the nation in 1991 for saving the lives of 65 people.
On 13th November 1989 an accident took place in the Mahabir coal mine of Raniganj area in West Bengal. A sudden inflow of water from an upper seam due to human error left 65 miners trapped in the underground mine at a depth of 320 feet. All escape routes cut off and the water increasing every second the trapped miners were waiting to meet a watery grave. Above ground four teams were formed to try and bring out the miners before they died.
It was Er. Gill who instantly invented steel capsule about 7 feet high and 22 inches in diameter, boring a new borehole to lower the capsule and bring out the miners one by one. The water level was steadily rising, oxygen was fast depleting, the soft earth above the place where the miners had taken shelter was subsiding and the borehole being unlined would stand only for 36 hours.
Since 1998 after his retirement, he was living in Amritsar with his family and remained active in social life till his sudden demise on November 26 last year.