Ranchi: The Ranchi-based Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) is in the news once again in less than two months — albeit for not so pleasant reasons — as the workforce that played a crucial role in making India’s ‘Moon Mission’ and the launch of Aditya L1 mission to study the sun successful events, have not received salaries for over a year now.
The 3,200-odd workforce of HEC in Ranchi, despite not being paid for almost 18 months, had their chests swollen with pride with the successful launch of Aditya L1 on Saturday.
An official said that the horizontal sliding door, folding-cum-vertical re-positionable platform, mobile launching pad, among other vital parts, have been manufactured at HEC.
An ISRO team also visited the HEC recently when the equipment were being manufactured.
Gaurav Singh, who works as an engineer at HEC, said that “all the employees of HEC are proud of all the missions”.
“We are also partners in this solar mission. It is our request to the government that this institution, which has been a partner in the innovation of the country, should be pulled out of this financial crisis,” Singh said.
The HEC is a Public Sector Undertaking under the Ministry of Heavy Industries located in Ranchi’s Dhurwa area.
It has been learnt that the HEC has been facing a financial crisis for the last two-three years. According to sources, the HEC has requested the Ministry of Heavy Industries several times to provide working capital of Rs 1,000 crore.
The Ministry, however, has apparently submitted that the Centre cannot extend any help.
Meanwhile, the debts have increased to such an extent that the employees are not getting paid.
In fact, for the last two-and-a-half-years, there has been no appointment of any permanent CMD in the HEC.
Rana Sangram Singh, General Secretary of Hatia Project Workers Union, the biggest union of HEC, attributes the current condition of HEC to mismanagement.
“The current CMD in-charge Nalin Singhal hardly pays any attention to HEC. There are three directors but they are also available 1-2 day(s) a week. Step-motherly treatment is being meted out to the contractual workers.
“The Central government should immediately take initiative to save this glorious institution,” he said.
Notably, the firm delivered the mobile launching pad, among other crucial and complex equipment, for Chandrayaan-3 in December 2022, ahead of schedule, even as the staff, including the engineers, senior officials and workers, were going unpaid.
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