Recently the Government of Punjab signed an MoU with the NHPC in which the latter has been appointed as consultants for the long-pending Shahpur Kandi project.

The employees alleged that no private company was ready to take over the Shahpur Kandi project at a cost less than Rs 2,000 crore. However, the employees and management of the dam was ready to give an undertaking that they would complete the work within four years in less than Rs 1,000 crore provided the funds were provided timely by the government.

About 50 per cent of the material needed for the dam, including steel, machine parts and heavy earth moving machinery, was lying unutilised at the dam site. Moreover, the government was paying salary to about 10,000 employees without getting any work from them.

If the dam work was done through the department, the government would not only save the labour component but would also not have to pay anything for creating the basic infrastructure. Any private company taking over the construction work of the dam would take about 20 per cent as administrative charges. Even these could be saved if the work was done through the department, they maintained.

The employees threatened to gherao the NHPC team as and when it visited the site of the dam for inspection. They have also called a convention of the retired and serving employees of the dam on February 25 to present their case.

The employee leaders of the Ranjit Sagar dam who were present at the today’s meeting of the joint action committee included Mr Gian Chand Loomba, Mr Naresh Kumar Bajaj and Mr Harinder Randhawa.

Though the officers of the dam were not present at the meeting, their tacit support for the move was obvious from the fact that the members of the joint action committee were provided with official set up for organising the programme.