Srinagar: For the second time in less than a month, Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) has urged the Jammu and Kashmir administration to impose prohibitory orders at the Ratle power project site in Kishtwar, citing the “safety of workers” and “public order concerns”.The development took place a day after Sanjay Parihar (Parihar), a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist linked to the Leader of the Opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, Sunil Sharma, and the saffron party’s Kishtwar legislator Shagun Parihar, threatened to halt the construction of the Ratle project in the presence of a senior government officer on Thursday.Reacting to the development, the ruling National Conference and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused the Kishtwar district administration of failing to “uphold the public interest” and “selective inaction” against the “BJP leaders and workers” who were allegedly disrupting the project.Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar Pankaj Kumar Sharma could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts. This story will be updated when a response is received.In a letter to Sharma on Saturday (January 9), the MEIL’s Ratle project chief Harpal Singh, without naming Parihar, alleged that a group of “outsiders” have been staging “unlawful protests” at the project site in Kishtwar’s Drabshalla since last month.Also read: J&K: Megha Engineering Blames Local BJP MLA for Stalling Ratle Power Project WorkParihar, a former sarpanch whose family has bagged contracts worth millions of rupees despite not losing land in the project, as reported by The Wire, was blacklisted by the MEIL last year after he failed to execute a contract.After facing punitive action by the company which was the biggest donor of electoral bonds to the BJP worth Rs 664 crore, Parihar has been leading a small group of locals from Kishtwar who frequently gather at the project site in Drabshalla.Seeking prohibitory orders under Section 163 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), Singh claimed that the protests were “causing obstruction to employees, visitors and deliveries” which has “directly impacted the progress” of the multibillion rupees power project.“Despite clear directions from your good office for prohibition of any kind of unlawful assembly, strike or hartals at project sites, but (sic) they are not abiding by the direction and continuously doing the illegal activities to disrupt the project work. Such deliberate interference has directly impacted the progress of this significant project,” the letter states.Accompanied by a small group of supporters, Parihar on Friday again threatened to halt the Ratle project work in the presence of Assistant Labour Commissioner (Kishtwar) Mamta Sudershan, who was on a visit to the project site.A video circulated on social media showed Ratle project head Singh briefing Sudershan outside the Drabshalla site about the status of retrenched employees. Parihar, also present at the spot, heckled Singh and sought to threaten him.Singh accused the BJP activist of creating hurdles in the project, while labelling him as an “outsider”, “I won’t engage with you. I will not talk to any person who is not an employee,” Singh said to Parihar.A garlanded Sanjay Parihar with the BJP’s Sunil Sharma and Shagun Parihar. Photo: By arrangement“We will see how outsiders work here then. We won’t allow you to work if you resort to hooliganism. If I was not bound by law, I would’ve hung you upside down,” Parihar threatened Singh, forcing him to return to his office without completing the briefing as the argument heated up.The MEIL’s latest letter refers to an order issued by the Kishtwar district magistrate on May 22 last year under section 163 (1) of the BNSS that had banned “unlawful assembly, strike or hartals” at all the power project sites in Kishtwar.Following the reading down of Article 370 in 2019 and buoyed by the recent Indo-Pak military conflict, the Union government has fast-tracked four power projects in the Chenab valley district, which is emerging as a clean power hub of North India.Issued in the backdrop of protests by some locals of Kishtwar and the workers employed at the power projects, the order had directed Senior Superintendent of Police, Kishtwar, to ensure compliance and prosecute the violators under section 223 of the BNSS and “other relevant sections”.“There is already unreasonable delay in execution of these projects which are of national importance and such illegal strikes/tool down strikes are not only illegal but against the large interest of the government,” the order by former DC Kishtwar Rajesh Kumar Shavan, which was valid for two months, said.In November 2024, five local union leaders in Kishtwar were detained under the controversial Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act on charges of attempting to obstruct the power projects, a move that evoked widespread criticism.The latest letter by the MEIL comes less than a month after the company issued an order for the retrenchment of 320 employees from the Ratle project under Clause (c) of Section 25-f of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, prompting Parihar, who was the sarpanch from Kuntwara in Kishtwar, and his supporters to launch protests at the project site.After the retrenchment order became public, Burhan Andrabi, MEIL’s human resource manager for the Ratle project, suffered injuries during a targeted attack on December 4 in Drabshalla while the local BJP leaders falsely blamed the company’s top management and its employees of having links with terrorism and Pakistan.On December 17 last year, MEIL approached the deputy commissioner of Kishtwar with a letter seeking “immediate police deployment” and a “prohibitory order” to restrict gatherings within a kilometre of the project.The MEIL had also urged the Deputy Commissioner, on December 16, to book Kishtwar-based social media influencer Asif Iqbal Naik under sections 351 (criminal intimidation) and 356 (criminal defamation) of the BNSS along with sections 66-E and 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.Naik had amplified the false accusations made by the BJP leaders that the MEIL’s Ratle project management and its employees had links with terrorism and Pakistan.Senior PDP leader and former lawmaker from Kishtwar Firdous Tak said the controversy was “political shadow boxing” involving the saffron party’s top leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, while accusing MEIL of recruiting employees “on the directions of BJP leaders”.Also read: J&K: Ratle Project Chief Accuses BJP MLA Shagun Parihar of Sabotage in Kishtwar Hydropower Project“Nearly 90 per cent of those executing work at the site are affiliated with or are leaders of the BJP themselves. Now that the company has started retrenching employees, most of whom are BJP supporters, the party is attempting to project a false image of fighting for the people,” he said.Tak added: “The recent visit of the Union power minister to Kishtwar and the instructions issued to BJP leaders to coordinate with the company management clearly expose this collusion. Both sides are misleading the public.”Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar visited Kishtwar on Sunday (January 4) and dismissed the allegations by his party’s Jammu and Kashmir leaders that sought to link some employees of the Ratle power project with terrorism and Pakistan as a “local issue”.Shahan Sajjad Kichloo, the National Conference’s media analyst and son of Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo, said, “It is deeply concerning that certain BJP leaders and workers are openly creating hurdles, issuing threats to project management, contractors and construction agencies and obstructing work on the ground. If the rule of law is to prevail, those impeding the work must be held accountable without fear or favour”.