By Jehangir Ali
Srinagar: The blacklisting of a contractor linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) seems to have paved the way for the controversy surrounding the 850-MW Ratle power project in J&K’s Kishtwar district, The Wire has learnt.
Sanjay Parrihar, a former village headman (sarpanch) from Kuntwara, emerged as the face of the agitation in Kishtwar after he publicly threatened the Ratle project head Harpal Singh and the human resource chief Burhan Andrabi with “dire consequences” while falsely alleging that they had links with Pakistan and militancy.
The threat came after the MEIL issued an order for retrenchment of 320 employees, prompting uproar from the BJP’s Kishtwar leaders and activists who claimed that the retrenchment had targeted only the local employees while outsiders had retained their jobs, a claim which later turned out to be false.
Sanjay was blacklisted earlier this year for failing to complete a contract worth Rs 1.13 crore, a MEIL official said.
Although documents show that Sanjay’s family has not lost any land in the Ratle project, he is believed to have used his political clout to bag ‘work orders’ worth millions of rupees from the MEIL in the name of his father Tara Chand Parrihar and sister Neelima Manhas.
Documents accessed by The Wire show that Sanjay’s father bagged at least two work orders worth Rs 16.19 lakh and Rs 1.13 crore from the Hyderabad-based company in 2024 while Sanjay’s sister bagged at least five contracts worth around Rs 8 lakh.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
