Ranjit Sagar Dam, April 9
Anxiety is writ large on the face of Tarsem Lal, a retired employee of the Ranjit Sagar Dam project, who, after dedicating 22 years of his life to the construction of tunnels, has been asked to return excess money paid to him by the government during his service period.

The government has ordered recovery for lakhs of rupees from him instead of granting him pension, gratuity and other monetary benefits in his old age. The debt-ridden Tarsem Lal is one of about 2,500 employees, who have retired or are on the verge of retirement, who have been asked to return the excess money.

The authorities had granted special increments to work-charged employees who were regularised from March 13, 1996, onwards. Holding the special increments granted to hundreds of project employees as illegal while fixing their pay, the Punjab Government recently directed the project authorities to recover all excess payments to such employees.

The state government had also asked the project authorities to re-fix their pay in the scale relevant to their posts. The dam authorities, however, have asked the government to reduce/ignore the special increments during fixation of pay for pensionary benefits to check financial hardship and mental torture to retiring and retired workmen who have already suffered a lot.

Belonging to poor families, a majority of the workers have been forced to commit suicide or are working at roadside vends to earn their livelihood. Some of the affected employees have even died but the process for recovery of excess money remains unaffected.

Narrating his tale of woe, the debt-ridden Tarsem Lal, a resident of Behdala-Jalgraon in Una district of Himachal Pradesh, said he was forced to run a rehri at Uchha Thara colony of Ranjit Sagar Dam project. Granted 10 special increments for his excellent service by the project authorities, Tarsem Lal is today leading a hand-to-mouth existence, burdened by heavy debt.

He incurred heavy expenditure (Rs 6. 50 lakh) on the treatment of his wife, Usha Devi, who later died of renal failure. A pensionary benefit of Rs 1.63 lakh, too, proved meagre for clearing his debt.

“I did not go to the office after receiving a show-cause notice. It was not our fault. The management granted us increments and we accepted the same,” lamented Tarsem Lal.

Another affected person, Bali Ram, who runs a rehri, said the government had been harassing them un-necessarily. “The management should check all aspects before granting special increments,” he regretted.

Financial adviser and chief accounts officer of Ranjit Sagar Dam project Sohan Lal Sharma said work on recovery was in progress. The state cabinet had earlier banned the recovery due to the model code of conduct for the assembly elections.