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RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Jan.27: The future of HEC, the ‘Mother of Industries’, hangs in balance.
It appeared after a clash broke out between the CISF and the HEC employees protesting over the demand of their salaries not paid for the last 15 months.
The situation arose after a CISF company led by Assistant Commandant C.K.Verma removed pitchers the agitating employees have hanged outside the HEC headquarter gate to symbolize end of the ‘Mother of Industries’ and the carpet they had spread for the last 88 days to use during their protest against the PSU management.
The CISF took the action saying banners and posters on the gate create obstruction in performance of their duty while protesting employees, who were HEC engineers, raised objections saying they had every right to raise their voice for getting their due salary and ask the company officials to share a roadmap to save the company.
No one of the HEC officials was available for comment on the situation. An insider, however, said, ‘though there was a clash but it remained limited to heated arguments. Except the stick, which was used to remove the carpet, no force was used during the clash.’
An agitating engineer contradicting the insider said: “CISF officials threatened to open fire. They were behaving in such a way that they have been instructed not to allow us to agitate.”
An insider said that the company requires Rs 12 crore every month for salary payment of their regular employees, contract labourers and supply workers but for the last 15 months it has not got any amount for wage payment and the situation has made the lives of around 3500 workers miserable.
The matter is in the knowledge of everyone including Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajya Sabha member Sameer Oraon and Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Seth besides others and all are intentional to save it but nothing could be done in the matter so far.
HEC is one of the leading suppliers of capital equipment in India for steel, mining, railways, power, defense, and space research, nuclear and strategic sectors. It also executes turn-key projects from concept-to-commissioning. Set-up in the year 1958, HEC has acquired expertise in its field through its more than half a century’s experience.
With the seamless integration of its facilities, HEC is one of the largest integrated engineering complexes. Sprawling in an area of around 2100,000 sq.m, HEC has facilities starting from steel melting, casting, forging, fabrication, machining, assembly and testing. It has its own in-house research and product development wing to deliver products suiting customers’ specifications.
