Munna Qureshi, 34, was overwhelmed when a Left-backed trade union outfit brought him to Durgapur from New Delhi to felicitate him and fellow rat-hole miner Vakeel Hasan, for rescuing Cooch Behar resident Manik Talukdar and 40 others trapped inside the partly-collapsed Silkyara-Barkot under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand last month.

Along with Qureshi and Hasan, the Citu-affiliated Hindusthan Steel Employees' Union also felicitated Talukdar who managed to emerge alive from the tunnel on November 28 following the mammoth rescue operation involving hundreds of workers, including the team of rat-hole miners.

Since November 28, the spotlight has turned on a team of 12 rat-hole miners led by Qureshi and Hasan. But Qureshi, the father of three, said it did not take long for them to get back into the darkness that they live in.

"I am a poor plumber and struggle to meet the daily needs of my three children. I was surprised when the organisers contacted me over the phone from faraway Durgapur and wanted to felicitate me at the Sramik Milan Utsav," said Qureshi, who lives in a small rented room in New Delhi with his kids.

The Citu-affiliated Hindusthan Steel Employees' Union has been organising the Sramik Milan Utsav since 2017 to recognise the role of workers in "nation building".

Sourav Dutta, joint secretary of the trade union and an organiser of the Utsav, said they wanted to salute the workers for undertaking such a risky rescue operation and decided to invite Qureshi and Hasan for the felicitation that saw the presence of CPM Rajya Sabha MP and lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya and ISF MLA Nawsad Siddiqui on Sunday.

Qureshi, who never went to school, did not know a place called Durgapur existed.

"I was surprised to know that people in Durgapur town knew about me.... I am overwhelmed," he said.

"I had been felicitated by Indian Idol (a music reality show) and many political organisations and individuals.... But the sudden focus on us has not changed our lives. We are happy to have saved so many lives but our basic struggles continue," he said.

Qureshi said he continues to live in an 8ft/10ft rented room in Delhi with his three schoolgoing children and earns between Rs 14,000 and Rs 16,000 every month.

Qureshi said he never went to school because of poverty. He was nine when his father died and he eventually became a plumber.

"I want my children to get proper education but I don't know how can I manage with so little money," he said, added that his wife Anisha died of Covid in 2021.

Since then, Qureshi has been raising Fayez, 9, and two daughters Sanaya, 5, and Mahira, 7 with the help of neighbours in Delhi.

Qureshi added that he and his team hoped to see the light at the end of their individual tunnels.

They had appealed to the Uttarakhand government for a government job but were given Rs 50,000 each.

Qureshi and his team met Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on December 21, asking for jobs.

"He assured us that he would look into our demand. We will wait for a few days and if nothing is done we will return the cheques of Rs 50,000 to the government," said Qureshi.

Tunnel survivor Talukdar hit a raw nerve when he said he might have to go back to work outside Bengal again, lamenting the lack of jobs in the state.