Two NHPC engineers fear threat to life, quit Bihar

Mangalore Today News Network

Muzaffarpur, May 16, 2017: Apprehending threat to their lives, two engineers of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Limited, posted in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, have left the state and said they would never return.

NHPC executive director Pradeep Jauhar said the two engineers left Bihar on Sunday after informing their seniors at Muzaffarpur and company’s headquarter in New Delhi that they would never return to the state in future.

Jauhar, however, did not disclose the names of the engineers.

In a letter to their seniors, the two engineers, deputed at NHPC’s Rahulnager camp office in sadar police station area of Muzaffarpur, 71 km north of Patna, expressed fear that they would be eliminated if they did not leave the place at the earliest, Jauhar said. “Since then, all the employees posted at the camp office are feeling unsafe,” he added.

Jauhar said he met Muzaffarpur divisional commissioner (in-charge) RK Khandelwal and Tirhut zone inspector general Sunil Kumar on Monday and sought protection for NHPC employees from outlaws.

NHPC, a public sector hydropower generation company, has been assigned the task of constructing rural roads in six north Bihar districts . The company had earlier signed an agreement with the Union rural development ministry and the Bihar government for construction and upgradation of over 6,000 km of rural roads in north Bihar and its maintenance for five years.

The six ix districts are Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, East Champaran and West Champaran.

Jauhar said the company had almost completed its task. “Work on only six roads remains to be completed. Under the prevailing law and order condition, it will be difficult for us to continue our work,” he said.

Meanwhile, an NHPC official said the two engineers had some dispute with a local contractor over payment against the work done. “The contractor had threatened them with dire consequences if the payment was cleared,” he said without naming the contractor.

The Tirhut zone IG said he had assured all possible steps to protect NHPC employees during their stay here. “I would like to tell them that there was no need to panic. The police will provide full security to them,” he said.

“They had not sought security earlier. Now that they have come to us, their security will be beefed up,” he added.

Courtesy: Hindustantimes