2800 workers of HEC staged demonstrations in Ranchi

Deepak Kumar, a techincian forced to sell Idlis to make ends meet

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting flags report as misinformation

The BBC had published a story about a technician who had worked on Chandrayaan not having been paid for 18 months. The report claimed that 2800 workers working for the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) had faced a similar fate and were protesting outside the company in Ranchi over the issue. 

The BBC had interviewed Deepak Kumar, a technician who has now resorted to selling Idlis to make ends meet. 

“I used to run my house through credit cards. That got me into a debt of Rs 2 lakh and I was subsequently labelled a defaulter. Then I borrowed cash from my relatives to run my household. My debt exceeds Rs 4 lakh. Due to my inability to repay people have stopped lending me money. Then I had to borrow by pledging my wife’s jewellery as collateral. When I couldn’t even afford 3 meals a day, I opened an idli shop. My wife makes good idlis. Currently I earn Rs 300 to Rs 400 per day by selling idlis. The profits range from Rs 50 to Rs 100 a day. I run my household through this,”  Deepak Kumar had stated to the BBC. 

Kanchan Gupta, senior advisor for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has lashed out at BBC for spreading malicious misinformation and that the HEC has not made any components for Chandrayaan-3.