Row over Ratle project retrenchments
Sanjeev K Sharma
JAMMU, Dec 13: Retrenchment of 230 workers, engaging controversial contractors and a HR officer from Kashmir by a senior officer of a company tasked for hydro electric power project in the mountainous Kishtwar district has triggered resentment among the locals who claimed that even the surrendered terrorists are being engaged in the project works in the sensitive area.
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However, the Joint Chief Operating Officer of Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL), Harpal Singh, who has been accused for ousting the workers and doing all the controversial acts failed to respond to the repeated phone calls. He told a section of media that the local MLA was interfering in the project works.
It is pertinent to mention here that NHPC Limited, India’s premier hydropower company under the Ministry of Power, has formed Ratle Hydroelectric Power Corporation Limited, a joint venture company (JVC) with J&K State Power Development Corporation Ltd (JKSPDC) for the implementation of the run-of-river hydroelectric plant on the Chenab river at Drabshalla village. The JVC was incorporated on June 1, 2021, with NHPC and JKSPDC. The construction work is being undertaken by MEIL.
Sources informed that construction of the 850 MW Ratle Hydroelectric Power Project in Kishtwar district provided employment to 1,434 people, 960 of them from Kishtwar district, 220 from Doda, 24 from Ramban and 215 from outside J&K.
They said that about 35 of the ousted employees were those who have lost their lands in the hydroelectric project.
“We have a family to support, our children also need education and we have many other expenses to meet,” an ousted worker of the project, whose land was lost in the project, said, adding that the way they were ousted from the job in the month of September 2025 was unethical.
The affected employees along with their families also visited the offices of district administration Kishtwar and Harpal Singh was grilled after which he assured to reengage the ousted workers but he avoided the same on one pretext or the other.
Sources in the project informed that Singh also brought a new GM HR from Kashmir who even engaged the surrendered terrorists and being Kishtwar a sensitive area, locals have expressed concern over such a strange development.
They also said that nearness of Singh with a political outfit was exposed when he ousted some selected contractors to allot the works to others only to be in good books of his political bosses from a particular political outfit which is Kashmir based.
When contacted, MLA Shagun Parihar informed that the project officer concerned retrenched the employees without giving them the benefits as per the law.
“The company engaged with the project tampered the appointment documents of the ousted employees to show that they were appointed in the year 2023 to deny them benefits,” she maintained adding that the aggrieved people visited her as she was their elected representative.
The MLA also said that if the people from other States start working in remote places like Kishtwar, where the people of Kishtwar will go then as there are no avenues in the region.
Sources further said that as Harpal Singh has failed in meeting the work target he was assigned, his company is likely to suffer losses running in crores and as a face saving exercise he was blaming the MLA.
Some employees of company also claimed that Harpal was blaming the MLA only to save his skin.
Some concerned citizens of the area have expressed serious concern and have demanded a probe by some national agency into the issue.
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