CITU activists, Kinnaur MLA still at loggerheads

SHIMLA: Activists of the CITU and Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Jagat Singh Negi and his brother Mahender Negi, who runs the crushing unit for the project, are at loggerheads over the protracted strike of the workers of the 450 MW Shongtong-Karcham power project in Kinnaur.

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 29

Activists of the CITU and Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Jagat Singh Negi and his brother Mahender Negi, who runs the crushing unit for the project, are at loggerheads over the protracted strike of the workers of the 450 MW Shongtong-Karcham power project in Kinnaur.

CITU state secretary Vijender Mehra, who was court arrested today from Chhota Shimla in support of the workers strike as part of the CITU’s stir to mount pressure on the state government to resolve the 44-day-long strike, said the district administration of Kinnaur, its legislator Jagat Singh and contractors were aggravating the crisis by not allowing a settlement to take place. The local MLA has vested interests in the private company, Kinner Kailash construction company (KKCC), run by his brother, he charged.

Mehra said KKCC and other sub-contractors were not paying wages to the workers, while KKCC was supplying materials to outsider whereas it had got permission to supply bajri and stones to power project only. The sub-contractors have not paid tunnel and tribal allowance to workers and are making no contribution to the EPF.

Mehra charged that the sub contractors of Patel Engineering company had not paid the wages from December to February 2016. The workers strike would continue till their demands are not accepted, he asserted.

Trashing CITU’s charges, KKCC owner Mahender Negi claimed that the CITU was trying to influence workers for the third time as CITU’s two attempts earlier failed. Local contractors have paid all wages including to workers employed by them as per laws in the presence of HPCL, which is executing the work and it is wrong to accuse that local contractors do not want the issue to be settled, Negi told The Tribune.

Mahender Negi claimed his family come under the project-affected family since his land and stone crusher was acquired by HPPCL for construction of project. “The criteria of allotting work to local contractors is that an individual should be a land loser and it was not influenced by his brother Jagat Singh Negi, who is a local MLA,” he claimed.

Refuting the CITU charges, Jagat Negi claimed that the CITU was in the habit of levelling baseless charges against him. Section 144 was imposed by the district administration.