No Salary for 18 months, technician who helped in Chandrayaan-3 is selling idlis
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- September 19, 2023
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The world congratulated India on the marvelous success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission which became the first spacecraft to successfully land on the South Pole of the moon. But, not every story behind India’s lunar mission success had a happy ending and the story of Deepak Kumar Uprariya is one of those. A technician in HEC (Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited), Deepak Kumar worked in building the launchpad of ISRO’s Chandryaan-3, but even after the historic success of the lunar mission, Deepak is selling idlis at a roadside shop in Ranchi as per the news platform NDTV which quoted a BBC report.
HEC which is a Central Public Sector Undertaking that made the folding platform and sliding door for the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft did not pay Deepak Kumar Uprariya’s salary for 18 months forcing the technician to start selling idlis to make ends meet.
The report mentions 2,800 such employees of HEC who didn’t receive their salaries from last 18 months. They have even protested against the government for their salary, but no action was taken pushing employees like Deepak to find alternate means of income.
As per the BBC report, Deepak Kumar Uprariya still works with HEC in the hope of the salary and sell idlis before and after office. “First I managed my house with a credit card. I got a loan of ₹ 2 lakh. I was declared a defaulter. After that, I started running the house by taking money from relatives,” Deepak Kumar Uprariya said.
Mortgaged wife’s jewelry
“So far I have taken a loan of four lakh rupees. As I have not returned the money to anyone, now people have stopped lending. Then I mortgaged my wife’s jewelry and ran the house for a few days,” he added.
Deepak was forced to sell idlis for the survival of his family. “My wife makes good idlis. I get 300 to 400 rupees every day by selling them. I make a profit of 50-100 rupees. I am running my house on this money,” he told BBC.
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Updated: 19 Sep 2023, 07:37 PM IST
