ROPAR: Surinder Kapoor, Minister of Power and Irrigation, Punjab, “misled” the Assembly while making a statement regarding the agitation of the PSEB engineers and subordinate staff working in Guru Gobind Singh thermal! Plant, here?
Replying to a question raised by the CPI MLA, Vimla Dang, Kapoor had stated, in the Vidhan Sabha, on March 8, that the PSEB staff had withdrawn their agitation following an agreement with the authorities.
However, the engineers’ association and trade unions of the thermal plant, vehemently rebutting the statement of the minister, here, on Wednesday, and said that they had merely suspended their agitation on an assurance given by the Chief Secretary, A.S.Chatha, that “prompt action” would be taken against the guilty policemen and an independent inquiry ordered into the theft case.
The engineers and subordinate employees had started an agitation on February 22, to protest against torture of an assistant executive engineer T.S.Kalra, and five other employees by the local police. The engineers had stopped construction work on the sixth unit of thermal plant and sat on dharna outside the main gate of the plant.
Kalra and about 20 other employees were detained by the police for interrogation into a theft case in the PSEB store involving material worth Rs.8 lakh approximately. The use of third degree methods of torture of PSEB men had sparked off an agitation.
The minister, while making the statement on the floor of House, had also stated that D.S.P. (Detective) Jaspal Singh had been shifted and an inspector and a sub inspector susperled owing to their involvement in the torture. The trade unions and engineers’ association, however, have been demanding suspension and transfer of D.S.P. and registration of criminal cases against the other two officials beside an independent Inquiry into the theft case.
The engineers’ association, at an emergency meeting held a Patiala, on Tuesday, had expressed resentment and surprise over the statement of the minister it was pointed out that minister had not informed the House about the promise made by the chief secretary with Kalra. Paramjit Singh general secretary of the association in a written statement said that chief secretary had agreed to hold high-level inquiry into torture case and complete it within four weeks.
Meanwhile, the engineers’ association has raised serious objections to alleged attempts by certain police officers, investigating the theft case, to transfer it into a misappropriation case without holding an independent inquiry, R.K.Mahajan, regional secretary of the association said that they had no faith in local police. He regretted that police officers had been drawing their own conclusions about the case without going into the investigations.
Mahajan said the policemen posted in thermal pants should be interrogated to unfold the theft story.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 12, 1993
