vishwakarma

GUWAHATI: The managing committee of the only Vishwakarama temple in the world has said an increasing number of people are refraining from buying idols and are visiting the temple to get the blessings of the Hindu lord of architecture for their shops and tools. The trend, which has picked up in the last two years, bodes well for society in general as it means less environmental pollution.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited : BHEL employees win 3 Vishwakarma National Awards and BHEL Units bag 5 National Safety Awards

BHEL employees win 3 Vishwakarma National Awards and BHEL Units bag 5 National Safety Awards

Employees of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) have once again bagged three 'Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskars' for the year 2010, among a host of public & private sector companies in the country. With this, the total number of Vishwakarma awards won by BHEL employees has gone up to 114 awards.

The awards were presented by the Hon'ble Minister for Labour & Employment, Sh. Mallikarjun Kharge, at a function in New Delhi.

3 Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskars have been shared by 13 employees from BHEL's Trichy unit, for innovative suggestions leading to cost reduction, higher productivity, safety and quality of products

In addition, 5 'National Safety Awards' have been won by BHEL's Trichy unit and Electroporcelains Division, Bangalore for outstanding achievements in terms of the longest accident free period and lowest accident frequency rate at their works. Significantly, BHEL and its employees have been winning both these prestigious national awards, consistently, since their inception.

People in BHEL have always been its strength and BHEL continues to invest in their learning so as to enable them to develop new ways of providing innovative solutions to customers. A pioneer in Human Resource Development in India, BHEL realises the value of quality human resources and that the development of this critical resource has become imperative, in view of a business environment where globalisation, competition, customer expectations, fast pace of change and new economic policies pose serious challenges.

Aimed at encouraging individuals to take up improvement projects for capability building and for continuous improvement in every sphere of activity, an Improvement Projects Rewards Scheme (IMPRESS) is operational company-wide. The scheme is e-network based and provides weightage for various aspects like relevance to the department, innovation/creativity, meeting targets, institutionalization, deployability and financial impact.

BHEL continually invests in education and training programmes for employees with a view to constantly upgrade their skills and knowledge. The company has several employee productivity enhancement initiatives in place, such as multi-skilling of employees, optimum utilisation of critical machines through three-shift, 24-hour operations and effective redeployment of employees.
The temple, established in 1965, is the only one of its kind in the world. It witnesses a large number of devotees, mostly owners of garages and mechanical shops flocking its premises on Vishwakarma Puja who offer prayers and take back 'nirmali' from the temple, sprinkling it on their shop premises.

"In the last two years, we have seen that many shop owners are opting not to buy idols and are instead coming here to worship the lord and take back his blessings in the form of flowers and vermillion which they keep in their shops. If the puja becomes centralised from the temple, then there will be less pollution in the city. Idols of Vishwakarma are often discarded by the wayside or submerged in waterbodies, leading to pollution of water with toxic chemicals," said Damodar Dhirasaria, patron of the Vishwakarma mandir.

The temple was founded by Bhabakanta Sarmah, a panda (priest) of the Kamakhya temple, in association with Mahabir Prasad Dhirasaria, a contractor. Legend goes that Sarmah was visited by Lord Vishwakarma in his dream, which inspired the priest to consecrate the temple on his land at the base of the famous Kamakhya temple.

"My grandfather saw the lord in his dream and decided to construct a temple. The site of the temple was based on a rock which had slipped away from the nearby hill. Mahabir, a contractor who was working on the construction of the motorway to Kamakhya, provided logistical support in building the temple. It is good that people are taking environmental considerations seriously and offering prayers at the temple instead of buying idols," said Joykanta Sarmah, main priest of the temple.