On 14th July, the GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle carrying the Chandrayaan-3 lifted off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota as per the scheduled launch time. The journey from Earth to the moon for the spacecraft is estimated to take about a month, and the landing is expected on 23rd August. Upon landing, it will operate for one lunar day, which is approximately 14 Earth days.
Since its launch, the media and trolls have been trying to find to report against it. First, the ISRO scientists were criticised for visiting the temple before the launch. Later, the likes of Newslaundry claimed projects like Chandrayaan-3 have no value other than boosting egos. Not only in India but anti-India elements were rattled in other countries over the mission. Many from the UK urged its government to stop sending aid to India as we are “wasting money” on space missions. Interestingly, UK aid stopped back in 2015, and even then, it had no practical impact on the Indian economy.
Now, they have come up with “new” information that the engineers who built the Chandrayaan-3 launchpad were not paid their salaries for over a year. From The Wire to Dainik Bhaskar, all media houses used almost the same language in their headlines, with little clarity on who were these engineers.
The report originated from News Agency IANS wire service on 15th July, one day after the launch. Several media houses picked it up as it is. Notably, News18, which The Wire quoted as the source, clearly made the distinction that it was the engineers at Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) in Ranchi are not paid salaries as the PSU is facing financial troubles. HEC built some systems for the Chandrayaan-3 program.
It was again mentioned in the first paragraph of the report that despite not receiving salaries, the HEC engineers left no stone unturned to complete the work order received from ISRO for Chandrayaan-3. IANS report nowhere developed any connection between salaries and ISRO.
On the contrary, The Wire wrote, “Engineers Who Built Chandrayaan-3 Launch Pad Weren’t Paid Salaries for Over a Year: Report”. The subtitle said, “Despite the issue of unpaid salaries, the firm delivered the mobile launching pad and other crucial and complex equipment ahead of schedule in December 2022.” There was no mention of HEC in the first paragraph either. It only found a place in the second paragraph.
Dainik Bhaskar deleted a misleading tweet
On 18th July, Dainik Bhaskar published a tweet on its report mentioning that the engineers that worked on Chandrayaan-3 did not receive a salary for 17 months and were taking loans from relatives for day-to-day expenses. There was no mention of HEC in the tweet, but the media house used the ISRO hashtag, giving the impression that ISRO had not paid its engineers. The tweet has now been deleted.
Quoting Dainik Bhaskar, hundreds of Twitter users lashed out at ISRO and the central government. While the report has been deleted, the report is still available on Dainik Bhaskar’s website.
Fake news paddler and propagandist RJ Sayema wrote Chandrayan 3 engineers weren’t paid a salary for the last 17 months!!! Can it get more disgusting and frustrating?”
She has now deleted the tweet after Dainik Bhaskar deleted the tweet that she had quoted. Putting blame on Dainik Bhaskar she questioned why the media house deleted the tweet. Interestingly, she did not say anything about the fact that she tweeted without confirming whether it was ISRO. Sayema has over a million followers on Twitter.
Why did you delete this tweet @DainikBhaskar ? pic.twitter.com/qBi9ZXLJxs
— Sayema (@_sayema) July 19, 2023
AIMIM national spokesperson Waris Pathan questioned who is responsible for non-payment.
Propaganda Twitter troll Team Saath sarcastically said, “Dharma will be saved. Do some sacrifice in the name of the country.”
Congress leader Kamru Choudhury said the engineers were not paid a salary for 17 months without making any distinction between ISRO and HEC.
UP Congress Committee vice chairman Dr Pankaj Shrivastava said, “The engineers of Chandrayaan are stressed as they have not received salary for 17 months and Modi Ji is busy in patting his own back. Shameful.”
For those who are unaware, HEC is a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Heavy Industries. It is located in the Dhurwa area of Ranchi, Jharkhand. For over 2-3 years, the company has been facing a financial crisis, and the issue of non-payment has come up in the news reports multiple times over time. In May 2023, it was reported that for over 14 months, around 2,700 workmen and 450 executives did not get their salaries. In April 2023, office-grade workers received salaries for the month of February 2022, and workmen got half of their pay for May 2022. HEC did not work directly on Chandrayaan-3 but was one of the suppliers that provided different elements for the project. HEC’s job was to build the launchpad.
Notably, HEC worked on Chandrayaan-2’s launchpad too. In June 2019, it was reported that HEC provided a mobile launch pad or MLP for Chandrayaan-2. In a statement, HEC CMD MK Saxena said, “The robust material and technology that HEC used in executing the project contributed to making the second launch pad project of ISRO at Sriharikota flawless even after 11 years of commissioning.”
Notably, according to the Zee Business report, when Chandrayaan-3 was launched, HEC engineers who worked on the project celebrated at the company gate. Engineer Subhash Chandra said the engineers who worked on the project were proud to be part of it.
There were several rounds of discussions between the general secretary of the HEC Officers’ Association and the management for the release of salary, but it went inconclusive. The workers and executives also contacted the ministry under which the PSU came, but the centre said it was unable to extend any help in the form of working capital of Rs 1,000 crore.
In November 2022, Investing reported that 3,400 officers and workers were not paid for over a year at HEC. It was pointed out that the company had projects worth Rs 1,500 crores from ISRO, Ministry of Defence, Railways, Coal India and the steel sector, but 80 per cent of the work was pending due to a shortage of working capital. The company that once had 22,000 employees in 1963 had only 3,400 in November 2022. Despite the hurdles, ISRO’s order was completed and delivered in December 2022.
Dainik Bhaskar made a bizarre claim that ISRO gave the order to develop several products to HEC but did not pay accordingly. IANS or any other report did not mention anything on such a claim. ISRO and HEC are yet to issue a statement. OpIndia has written to both HEC and ISRO for comments.
