No, HEC employees had not manufactured any components for Chandrayaan-3.
Claim
Meet Deepak Kumar Uprariya who sells Tea & Idli in Ranchi. He is a Technician, who worked for building ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 launchpad. For the last 18 months, he has not received any salary.
Rating
Explanation
In the above tweet posted the user claimed that the person who made launchpads for ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 is selling chai and idli now. The posts also mention that they didn’t receive their salary for 18 months.
Meet Deepak Kumar Uprariya who sells Tea & Idli in Ranchi. He is a Technician, who worked for building ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 launchpad. For the last 18 months, he has not received any salary.
“When I thought I would die of hunger, I opened an Idli shop” (BBC Reports) pic.twitter.com/cHqytJvtfj
— Cow Momma (@Cow__Momma) September 17, 2023
This same post was shared by many users with similar claims that can be seen here and here. Come, let’s check the authenticity of this viral claim.
What’s the truth?
When we started our research regarding this claim, we got a tweet posted on 18 September by the PIB Fact Check, which says “HEC was not entrusted with the manufacturing of any components for #Chandrayaan3 and HEC supplied some infrastructure for ISRO from September 2003 to January 2010.” This piece of news proves that the claim is false and misleading.
When we intensified our research, we found the documents of “GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, Ministry of heavy industries” on the Parimalnathwani website. The document provides the questions by Parimal Nathwani and the answers provided by the Ministry of Heavy Industries regarding HEC’s contribution to Chandrayaan 3.
According to the document, they have asked the minister of state of heavy industries as follows
• Whether it is a fact that Dhruva, Ranch unit of HEC was assigned to fabricate launch-pad and other components for Chandrayaan-3;
• The details of other units of HEC and/or public sector units under the Ministry, is any, which contributed to making the Chandrayaan-3 launch successful;
• The status report of the financial and operational health of the HEC; and
• Whether the media reports that engineers/technicians engaged in fabricating the Chandrayaan-3 launch pad have not been paid a salary for several months are true, if so, the details thereof?
Moreover, they have also published the documents with proper answers from Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State of Heavy Industries. One of the answers states, “HEC had supplied infrastructure items namely Mobile Launching Pedestal (MLP) and Hammer Head Tower Crane(10T), 400/60 T EOT crane, Folding cum Vertical Repositionable Platform (FCVRP) and Horizontal sliding Doors (HSD) to ISRO from September 2003 to January, 2010.”
The report also states that “HEC was not assigned manufacturing any components for Chandrayaan-3. Being registered under the Companies Act, HEC is a separate legal entity and need to generate its own resources to pay salary of its employee. Due to continuous losses and huge liabilities, HEC is facing acute financial crisis and salaries of workmen and officers are unpaid for 14 months and 18 months respectively.”
This same topic was also covered by ‘The New Indian Express’ titled as “Centre says HEC must find own cash to pay workers, unpaid for 18 months” published on 11 August 2023. This proves that, the claim of BBC headlines is false and misleading.
Earlier, during the launch of Chandrayaan 3 we wrote an article regarding who is this HEC and its salary issue with a title “Did ISRO engineers not receive their salary for 17 months? Read more to know the facts”.
Conclusion:
Therefore, we conclude with our available evidence that the claim of HEC employees who made launchpad of ISRO is false. Moreover, HEC Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the Ministry of Heavy Industries was facing acute financial crisis which led to the situation of not paying the salaries for the workers and officers.
