Over 200 employees of Ranchi-based ailing PSU Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) staged a dharna on Jantar Mantar road in Delhi on Thursday, demanding the revival of the PSU and the clearance of pending salaries.

JMM Rajya Sabha member Mahua Maji was present at the dharna. She had raised the issue of salaries pending for 18 months at the HEC in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked Mahua Maji to prove her statements. Maji agreed to do so.

CPI Ranchi general secretary Ajay Singh, who was coordinating the dharna, said on Thursday: “She (Mahua Maji) came in the morning and expressed solidarity with HEC employees’ demands and stayed till noon. We provided her with documentary evidence of the recommendation by the parliamentary panel of Rajya Sabha in 2022 and the parliamentary standing committee’s recommendations in 2017-18 and she submitted the same to the Rajya Sabha secretariat later in the day.”

Singh further said the parliamentary panel had last year recommended that the ministry make concerted efforts to improve the situation of the HEC and if needed, seek additional funds for the PSU.

Several INDIA leaders were present at the dharna.