Delivered from penury

Directing that Rs 50 crore and Rs 25 crore be deposited by Bihar and Jharkhand respectively, within eight weeks, before Justice Udai Sinha Committee, the Court directed disbursement of salaries on pro-rata basis within six months. A bench comprising Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Justice S.B. Sinha also asked the Patna High Court to give appropriate direction to speed up the liquidation process for the state-owned companies.

Speaking to The Indian Express, the Mahatos said they were happy they will finally be paid the arrears due to their late father, Fudan Mahato. ‘‘Had the government paid him his salary on time, we would not have lost him,’’ said Ashok.

Fudan, a Class IV employee of the government-run Electric Equipment Factory (EEF), died on October 3, 1993. ‘‘Much before his death, the EEF had turned sick.The Bihar government had stopped releasing funds to the PSU, and the employees weren’t paid for months…My father sold off an acre of ancestral land. We didn’t have cash to buy food for the family. The ration shop stopped giving credit. The school struck off our names,’’ said the sons. ‘‘Soon, he fell ill…We started begging but never got enough money to buy him medicines,’’ said Vimla Devi, Fudan’s widow.

Although Jharkhand was created in 2000, the fate of the PSUs remained uncertain. Secretary, Industry, Santosh Sathpathy said the process of division of liabilities between Jharkhand and its parent state is not yet complete. ‘‘Which is why we are unable to revive the PSUs.’’

Parijat Bhattacharya, too, welcomed the SC order. It was his son Chandan’s self-immolation in front of the Patna HC on Independence Day in 2002 that brought the plight of the state’s 25,000 employees of 19 PSUs to public notice. An Express campaign highlighted how they were being pushed to penury.

As news of the SC verdict reached the office of the Bihar State Agricultural Industries Development Corporation, employees distributed sweets.