High drama: Power sub-station worker climbs tower to protest ‘harassment’
The worker stayed on the tower for nearly four hours under the scorching sun before coming down following assurances from senior officials.
Alleging harassment and extortion by a senior power sub-station official, a 22-year-old contract worker on Wednesday climbed a high-voltage transmission tower in Prayagraj’s Manda area.
The worker stayed on the tower for nearly four hours under the scorching sun before coming down following assurances from senior officials.
The contract worker, Dharmaraj Bind, a resident of Uldapur village in Unchadih, Meja area, is employed at the 400/132 KV sub-station in Masauli, Manda. He climbed the tower around 10:30am to protest against the alleged exploitation of 12 contract workers by the senior official posted at the sub-station.
Upon being alerted, inspector Shailendra Singh from Manda police station reached the site and attempted to convince Bind to come down, but to no avail. However, he came down around 2:15pm after superintending engineer Ravindra Pal assured him that action would be taken.
According to Bind, the official in question recruited him and 12 other contract workers three years ago after allegedly collecting ₹1-lakh bribe from each. Post recruitment, the official allegedly extorted ₹3,000 per month from each worker from their ₹15,000 monthly honorarium. Bind alleged that those who resisted were threatened with dismissal or being falsely implicated in theft cases.
Bind further claimed that the official had appointed two workers, Narayan and Krishna -- residents of his own village -- to act as intermediaries in collecting the money. These two allegedly stayed with the official in a guest house, not the official government quarters. Attendance and honorarium disbursal reportedly took place in the guest house instead of the sub-station office, he alleged.
He also alleged that fewer employees than sanctioned were kept on duty, forcing workers to cover 30 days of work despite being paid for only 26. Leaves, he claimed, were never granted.
Bind claimed he had previously sent a complaint to the Prayagraj district magistrate and superintending engineer via registered post, but no action was taken.
Confirming that the worker came down safely, inspector Shailendra Singh said that departmental officials would look into the allegations and an inquiry was likely to follow.
