The engineers who built the mobile launch pad for the Chandrayaan-3, have reportedly not received their salaries for more than a year. As per a report by IANS, thousands of engineers at the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) have not received their salaries for the last 17 months. Despite this, the HEC delivered crucial and complex equipment, including the mobile launching pad for the mission.
“The HEC personnel held their heads once again with pride. We are happy that we are partners in such an important project for the country,” Subhash Chandra, an engineer who worked on the mission, was quoted as saying by IANS.
The HEC is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the Ministry of Heavy Industries. As per the report, it has been facing a financial crisis for over three years.
The employees of HEC have been staging protests and demanding help from the ministry. However, the ministry reportedly said that the Centre cannot extend any help to the PSU. This has led to debts increasing to such an extent that employees are not getting paid.
On Friday, the ISRO successfully launched the third edition of its Moon exploration programme from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, aimed at making a soft landing on the unexplored south pole of the Moon.
