The future of the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) in Jharkhand’s Ranchi hangs in the balance since the salaries of workers and officers remain unpaid for over a year.
This was confirmed by Minister of State for Heavy Industries Krishan Pal Gurjar who said in response to a query in the Rajya Sabha, "Being registered under the Companies Act, HEC is a separate legal entity and needs to generate its own resources to pay the salaries of its employees. Due to its continuous losses and huge liabilities, HEC is facing an acute financial crisis and salaries of workmen and officers are unpaid for 14 months and 18 months (approximately) respectively."
The minister also said in response to another query that HEC had not manufactured any components for the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
On June 17, executives of HEC gheraoed two of their directors at its headquarters at Dhurwa demanding immediate payment of their salaries which were pending for the past 17 months.
The executives withdrew their five-month strike (which they started on December 3, 2022) three months ago after assurances from the HEC management but started protesting after no action was taken.
Meanwhile, debts have increased to such an extent that 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.
HEC is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the Ministry of Heavy Industries. Located in Ranchi’s Dhurwa area, it is one of India’s oldest public sector units which supplies equipment to major steel plants across the country.