Distressed workers of the Sorang Power Project organised a mass protest rally over the weekend against the project management at Chaura village in Shimla District of Himachal Pradesh.
A majority of the employees are tribal villagers who have not been given their salaries for months. Neither have the villagers whose land was acquired for the project been given appropriate compensation.
The employees have threatened a complete shutdown of the power project if their demands are not addressed as soon as possible.
"No representative from the company has come forward to listen to our demands. We are unable to find out who is the actual owner of the power project. If nobody comes forward to talk to us, then we will shutdown the project," a protester, Ashok, said.
The manager of the Sorang Power Project, Anup, said the salaries were not paid due to issues within the company.
"The employees who have been working here have not received their salaries for the past four months. We admit it. Out of these four, two months' salary has been issued to the employees. There are some issues going on within the representatives of the company and they are sorting them out. As soon as the issues are resolved, then the pending salaries will be given top the employees," he said.
This 100 MW hydro power project is being constructed by the HP Sorang Power Limited in two phases. Sorang Power Limited is a subsidiary of NCC Infrastructure Holdings Limited.
