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Telangana State Southern Power firm told to pay injured worker

The company submitted that it would pay Rs 12,000 as salary to the petitioner, after which the bench closed the contempt case.

HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited on Friday told Hyderabad High Court that it had decided to pay Rs 12,000 as salary per month to a contract worker who lost his right hand up to his shoulder while attending repair work on an electric post.

A division bench comprising Justices C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy and G. Shyam Prasad was dealing with a contempt case by P. Venkateshwarlu of Mahbubnagar district seeking to punish the authorities concerned in not providing employment to him despite a court order.

The petitioner had met with an accident while working with a contractor of the TSSPDCL and had earlier approached the High Court seeking to direct the distribution company to provide him employment which was dismissed by a single judge after which made a fresh appeal.

While disposing his case in 2016, the bench said, “It is true that in the strict sense a contract labourer, working under a contractor, may not have the right to claim employment. But, one cannot ignore the ground reality that in whatever capacity the petitioner was made to work, he has lost his valuable limb while serving the TSSPDCL, which, undoubtedly, is ‘State’ within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution.”

When this contempt case came for hearing before the bench earlier, TSSPDCL counsel submitted that the authorities decided to provide job as office subordinate with a salary of '5,000 per month.

Pointing out that it would be difficult for a family to lead a life with such meagre salary, the bench directed TSSPDCL to consider paying him minimum wages.
The company submitted that it would pay Rs 12,000 as salary to the petitioner, after which the bench closed the contempt case.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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