Sagardighi, Dec. 30: The workers of five sub-contractor companies at the Sagardighi thermal power plant today did not come to work a day after the assault on a project manager by a group allegedly trying to extort money.
S. Shivaraj, from Tamil Nadu and an employee of the Telangana-based Power Mech Projects, was beaten up along with several others yesterday after the group's extortion demand was turned down.
Other than Power Mech, Bridge and Roof Co. (India) Ltd, L&T, Paharpur Cooling Towers and Indure Private Limited suspended work at the Sagardighi project of the state's power generation utility WBPDCL.
The officials of the companies posted there were disinclined to speak to journalists. Some of them said they would not like to go back to work till the main accused are arrested.
WBPDCL security guard Ashish Das, who sustained head injuries while trying to save Shivaraj, suffered a heart attack in the Sagardighi rural hospital in Murshidabad last night and was shifted to a nursing home in Behrampore today.
Kajal Patra, manager (human resource development) of Power Mech who went to see Shivaraj and the guard in hospital, said: "Tuesday's attack has led to panic among our employees."
There are about 13 sub-contractor companies working to build a new power unit with a capacity of 500MW in Sagardighi.
Police are looking for Moshiur Rahman, Bapi Sheikh and some others and are yet to make arrests. The accused have been charged with attempt to murder.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had visited the 1,100MW plant, currently being expanded to 1,600MW, on December 16 to inaugurate a newly commissioned 500MW unit and had promised that another 500MW unit, which Shivaraj was working on, would be complete soon.
The Sagardighi plant general manager, Swapan Kumar Bandyopadhyay, said no work happened today at the power unit under construction.
"The situation is quite tense. The employees and officials of different companies involved in the execution of the ongoing project are obviously scared. There was no work on the project today. This is a natural fallout of yesterday's attack. I have talked to the police and the district administration. They have assured me of all cooperation and security.... We are trying to regain their (the sub-contractors') confidence so that work can resume soon," Bandyopadhyay said.
Sources at the plant said some other sub-contractors might also stop working from tomorrow after a scuffle at the gate when unidentified people tried to enter the plant without ID cards and roughed up security guards when stopped.
A police picket was later posted at the project site.
Sources in Sagardighi said Moshiur runs a business of distributing and storing fish with his family.
A Trinamul source said Moshiur and his associate Bapi have close relations with the local INTTUC leadership, but Murshidabad Trinamul chief Mannan Hossain yesterday distanced the party from the two.
Hossain today expressed "helplessness" in controlling a section of party leaders who allegedly hobnob with "extortionists".
"I am in a peculiar situation. I cannot take action against Moshiur because he is not a member of Trinamul. But I know he has close association with some leaders of our party. Moshiur and Bapi are known extortionists and are tarnishing our party's image," he said.
Doctors at Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital said the condition of Shivaraj was stable. Aurobindo Banerjee, who examined him, said: "The patient (Shivaraj) has a breathing problem. We have also carried out a CT scan of his brain. The report is awaited, after which we will decide the further course of treatment."#
