Over a thousand employees of the ailing Ranchi-based Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) Limited staged a protest near the BJP state headquarters at Harmu Road in Ranchi demanding the Centre’s intervention in clearing their pending salaries and revival of the PSU.

Workers and officials of HEC under the aegis of HEC Bachao Majdoor Jan Sangarsh Samity staged agitation at the BJP office around 11am and continued to raise slogans and squatting at the party office till 1.30pm.

“We had informed the BJP leaders about our protest. But no senior official was present at the office and we had to return by submitting our memorandum to a gatekeeper at the office. We have already met Ranchi BJP MP Sanjay Seth and along with him met the Union heavy industries minister last year. We want the BJP MPs of the state to raise our issue with the Centre so that our pending salaries are cleared and the company is revived,” said HEC Majdoor Union chief Bhawan Singh.

Bhawan Singh also threatened to lock all the BJP MLAs houses if they fail to raise their issue with the Centre.

“The secretariat and the MLAs’ quarters are located on HEC land. If they (BJP MLAs) fail to raise our issues with the Centre then we will have no option but to agitate before the MLA houses and lock it from outside. We are not afraid of police action,” warned Singh.

The letter submitted at the BJP office reminds of the contribution of HEC to Chandrayaan-3 and to the Aditya L1 solar project of Isro and claims that HEC built the launchpad for the Aditya project, too. The letter speaks of HEC’s role in setting up steel-giant SAIL’s units in Bhilai, Rourkela, Bokaro and Salem.