Continuing on our previous article at http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3103 following is a table of the mega projects that are stuck. The delay costs the companies 100s of crores per year. If the various companies sincerely contribute to the human resource development of the state something similar to what is suggested by Kalahandi MP Bhakta Das (Expressbuzz Oct 17) in the context of Vedanta and the activists/opposers in the various places take a sensible approach then that will be a win-win situation for every body.
(However, one has to be careful in what they demand and how they demand. For example, laws should not be broken when demanding. Also, what is demanded should pass the common-sense test as making outrageous demands does not help. Nor does it help when it is not clear who the company is dealing with. The demands should be in tune with the size of the mineral resources to be used by the company and the environmental impact of the company.)
Company
Location
Land Required (acres)
Investment (in crores)
Current major Contributions by the company CSR arm or by its promoters in their individual capacity
Other contributions of the group; HRD contributions they should do
Today Pioneer reports on MP Bhakta Das’s demand to Vedanta with respect to Lanjigarh. Following is an excerpt from that report.
Das said the package should include direct employment of 5,000 locals in technical fields and indirect employment of 10,000 locals in non-technical fields, establishment of five technical colleges like medical, engineering, polytechnic and ITI and five central schools in the district.
Asked whether he would consider supporting extraction of bauxite in the Niyamgiri hill if VAL declares such a package, Das replied that a decision in this regard would be taken with consent of all citizens at a meeting where the industry would sign an agreement before the public.
Development of healthcare, roads, education and irrigation, connection of electricity to all villages, social activities, plantation, peripheral development and permanent income source for displaced people and tribals with lifetime free education to their children are also part of the package, he said. The industry would ensure that the flow of waters of rivers and streams in the Niyamgiri hill would not be affected. Consent of the tribals would have to be taken before handing over the hill, he said.
This is a constructive approach. I hope Vedanta agrees to it. (Although Vedanta’s Chairman is establishing a Rs 15,000 crore Vedanta University near Puri, with Rs 5000 crore of his own money, Vedanta should also pay attention to the localities where its industries are coming up and where its mining operations are located; in particular Lanjigarh and Jharsuguda; as those areas will bear the burnt of the pollution and environmental side effects and also many people there will be losing their lands.)
Following the above table the companies behind the other mega-projects should do the same. We list them here.
Arcelor Mittal @ Keonjhar:
POSCO @ Paradeep
Jindal thermal @ Angul; Jindal Steel and Power @Kalinganagar
Tata Steel, Kalinganagar
Vedanta @ Jharsuguda and @ Lanjigarh; Sterlite Iron & Steel @Keonjhar
Prasanta Das is the person who went to the High court when NIS was shifted. I met him this January and he showed me the following letters that he wrote to the CM.
Domestic steel producer Jindal Steel and Power has invested about Rs 300 crore to set a law school as part of its O P Jindal Global University project and will also approach corporate houses like Tatas and Ambanis to pump in more funds in the form of endowments.
The college, envisioned by JSPL Executive Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Navin Jindal, has been at the university campus in Sonepat, Haryana. The first session of the college, is expected to start in September this year.
" Jindal Global Law School will be the first phase of our endevour to promote excellence in higher education by setting up O P Jindal Global University. We have infused up to Rs 300 crore at the moment and expect more investment in form of endowments and donations," O P Jindal Global University Professor and CEO C Raj Kumar told media.
…The law college would function in collaboration with the top institutes worldwide like Harvard Law School among others and would offer a three-year post-graduate LLB programme. The institute is also planning to commence a five-year undergraduate programme in law.
Kumar said school would have competitive fee structure of Rs six lakh per annum and would offer scholarship and easy loan schemes to them.
The Orissa government should push JSPL for setting up similar higher education institutions in Orissa where they have existing operations (such as an iron ore mine in Tensa, Keonjhar) and where they are expanding some operations. In particular:
Bokaro Ispat Institute of Medicine at Bokaro General Hospital, which was supposed to start its academic session this year, is still awaiting a nod from the Medical Council of India (MCI).
The college also needs an approval of the board of directors of the Steel authority of India Limited (SAIL) for availing infrastructure of the Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL).
… Health minister Bhanu Pratap Shahi had in 2006 promised that he would clear the project within 24 hours if he received any proposal from BSL for setting up a medical college. He had also assured that the college would become functional by 2008. However, the pace of paperwork for setting up the college has raised doubts on whether the academic session would begin even in 2009.
Sources said that MCI had completed its survey of the general hospital, which would be used for training students. It has surveyed other infrastructure that BSL is willing to extend. However, the council has not given its nod yet. …
After getting the approval of the Jharkhand government in November 2007, the managing director of BSL, V.K. Srivastav, had told The Telegraph that he was anxiously waiting for the MCI team’s survey of the hospital, one of the best in eastern India.
To speed up work, the BSL also constituted the Bokaro Educational Trust headed by its executive director Jivesh Mishra. …
Union Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh said that the Chhattisgarh government would provide land for the Institute while NPTC would bear the entire cost of the project for setting up world-class IIIT in the state. "The state chief minister, Raman Singh, will select the site for the project," Ramesh said.
The experts who had set up IIITs in Hyderabad and Bangalore would be consulted for the Chhattisgarh project, the minister said. The proposal would be given final shape and the site would be finalised on June 30. Ramesh is scheduled to visit Chhattisgarh on the month-end and meet the chief minister to give final shape to the project.
One should compare this with today’s news at http://tathya.in/story.asp?sno=1888 which says NALCO will contribute 1.4 crores towards a police barrack. Few weeks back various news reports mentioned that NALCO has spent (http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/1333) 100 crores in CSR so far over its 20 years of existence. If its CMD had any shame and any pride on Orissa he would not have touted this number as something great. But it makes sense; if Orissa is a beggar then 100 crore is a big amount to give to a beggar in 20 years.
It is unfortunate that companies like NALCO, Arcelor-Mittal, Tats Steel, etc. treat Orissa this way. But its not all their fault. Our government also acts that way.
Our government is happy with one ITI or ITC and that seems to be the trend in terms of what they ask.
When will Orissa government learn from its neighbors Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh?
Just to recap:
(i) NTPC will make a 100 crore world class IIIT in Chhatisgrah.
(iv) Orissa gets a 1.4 crore police barrack for 1.4 crores from NALCO
(v) Orissa will get a few crore ITI from Arcelor Mittal
(vi) Orissa gets a 12 crore Math institute building from Tata Steel
(vi) A few good signs: MCL’s plan for a medical college in Talcher and Vedanta’s university plan: but who knows if they will happen and when.
I wonder if NTPC can make a 100 crore world class IIIT in Jharkhand Chhatisgarh why can not it have a similar investment in Orissa where its plants might have significantly contributed in making Talcher a hot oven.
Why can not our CM, our industry secretary, our Chief Secretary, say in no uncertain terms that Orissa is no beggar. These industries (NALCO,SAIL, NTPC, CIL, Arcelor-Mittal, POSCO, Tata Steel, etc.) that take and use (or plan to take and use) our minerals at throw away prices must stop thinking Orissa as a beggar to throw a few crore ITI/ITC, a 1.5 crore barrack, a 50 paisa safety pin for Orissa, etc. and start making IIITs, medical colleges, engineering colleges, establishing multiple ITI/ITCs, etc.
Why can not central minister of state Mr. Chandrasekhar Sahu go and talk to his colleague, the power minister Mr. Ramesh who announced the IIIT for Chhatisgarh to do a similar one in Orissa?
Why can not he talk to the other ministers to put pressure on NALCO and SAIL?
How come NTPC can make a IIIT in Chhatisgarh but not one in Orissa?
How come SAIL Bokaro can promise an engineering college and a medical college in Jharkhand and SAIL Raurkela can not do a similar one in Orissa?
ps — Just as an example of how the mineral processing companies have benefited one needs to note that in the last five years the iron ore price has increased more than the price of crude oil. But has Orissa received any benefit from that?
As per as per http://www.econstats.com/fut/xeiad_em1.htm the Crude oil prices over the last five years are: Jan 2004 -$33.16/barrel; Jan 2005- $48.25; Jan 2006- $67.86; Jan 2007- $58.17; Jan 2008- $91.67 and April 2008: $115.67.
Chairman and Managing Director of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) Shriram Upadhyay seems more concerned for educational and social development of Orissa than his counterpart in National Aluminium Company (Nalco) Chitta Ranjan Pradhan.
Upadhyay is eager to provide fund for establishment of a medical college at Talcher. Pradhan, though an Oriya, on the other hand, has till date not shown any interest in investing in human resource development of the State in a big way.
Interestingly, Nalco’s medical bill per annum is around Rs14 crore, and if this Navratna public sector undertaking (PSU) takes a bold step, it could save the huge medical expenses for its employees by investing in setting up of a medical college and hospital.
Lack of interest at the top management level of Nalco to fund in social sector of the State has irked the leading non-resident Oriyas (NROs) and educationists. While major private investors have been providing funds for development of the educational sector, PSU Nalco’s shyness to develop Orissa as an educational hub has resulted in a sorry state of affairs, lamented Professor Chitta Baral, who teaches at the Arizona State University.
Prof Baral has asked the Nalco chief to fund a medical college at Damanjodi (Koraput), an engineering college at Angul and a topnotch management institute in Bhubaneswar. He said that this is high time the Nalco authorities were forced to invest in the social sector in a big way.
Owing to political pressure, Nalco is funding few projects in Koraput and Anugul, alleged an educationist. He said that Nalco must take cue from MCL and Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) in taking initiative for investment in the social sector. CCL, it may be pointed out, is funding an engineering college in Jharkhand, its area of operation. Similarly, the Bokaro Steel Plant is also funding a medical college in Jharkhand.
… As Nalco has applied for another bauxite mines in Orissa, it is high time the State Government pressurised the PSU to fund liberally in the educational sector of the State, he said.
Following is Sambada’s tongue-in-cheek take in its Sunday magazine article on City Politics.
Provision of admission to the Puri DAV School by Anil Agarwal Foundation’s Vedanta University project for the children of displaced families has drawn an enthusiastic response from the villagers. As per the arrangement, 500 children from the land losing and displaced families will be admitted to the school.
By May 10, as many as 618 applications were received from children of the target families for admission in the DAV School. The children will get free education and the Foundation will provide uniforms, transport facilities, books and also mid-day snacks.
Despite discouragement and threats from vested interests opposed to the university project, the villagers and their children are very enthusiastic about the whole arrangement as they are serious about good education and a better future. After selection and admission, the classes are scheduled to start from July 1, according to a company release.
Following are excerpts from a report in the Statesman.
As a part of its CSR mission to facilitate quality school education for the upcoming generation of the project affected families, Anil Agarwal Foundation has partnered with the DAV School, Puri.
During the entrance tests, children came accompanied by parents and fellow villagers who were very keen for the admission of their wards, claimed a release issued by the foundation while noting that this was despite threats from vested interests who are opposed to the University project.
The CSR activities of Vedanta group of industries run by Mr Anil Agarwal focuses on health, education, livelihood and peripheral development, noted the release.
The educational initiative, in partnership with the DAV School, is expected to allay the fear of the local community that the world class University will be of no benefit to them. The students inducted to the DAV School now, will , in future find their rightful place in the Vedanta University.
As part of its ongoing Corporate Social Responsibility exercise, Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), Lanjigarh, has adopted all the 400 Anganwadis in six blocks of Kalahandi district under a project, Bal Chetna, in association with Sterlite Foundation and Government of Orissa through private-public partnership.
… The people were quite happy and enthusiastic about the new project, Bal Chetna, which will take care of their children’s health, nutrition and early education. Vedanta has already earned a good name for successfully operating 32 Child Care Centres with 1,139 children in the 18 peripheral villages at Lanjigarh. With free uniforms, nutritious midday meals, afternoon snacks and proper grooming, these centres have already laid a solid foundation for nurturing the future generation.
People are sure that children of areas beyond the peripheral villages and those of the entire district will now have access to similar facilities that can ensure a better future for them. The Collector said the Bal Chetna project would not only ensure a bright future for children but also open direct and indirect growth opportunities for the local youth. VAL vice-president Dr Mukesh Kumar said the company’s objective of taking up the project is to significantly upgrade the Anganwadi services under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
Vedanta intends to bring in visible improvement in the quality of education of the children, especially, the underprivileged, in the age group 0-5 years, by providing five-fold services that include play way method of learning, nutritious food, improvement in health status with focus on anaemia reduction and logistic support like education materials.
Following is an excerpt from a news report in Pioneer.
Coming under a sustained pressure from the State Government, the Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd (MCL) has reportedly agreed to set up a Medical College at Talcher. A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level joint meeting between the Coal India Limited (CIL) Chairman Partha S Bhattacharjee and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat on Thursday.
During the meeting, Patnaik placed a proposal before the Coal India Chairman to convert the existing 100 bedded hospital at Talcher to a 400-bedded hospital and to make it a full-fledged Medical College. Bhattacharjee promptly agreed to Patnaik’s proposal, sources said.
… Mahanadi Coalfields Limited CMD SR Upadhayay, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Bijay Kumar Patnaik and Secretary, Energy, Suresh Chandra Mohapatra were present at the meeting.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik seems to have found a magic wand to make industrialisation acceptable to masses: bring more youngsters under the technical education umbrella.
“I want each of the industry and corporate houses in our state to have a greater involvement in the technical education sector. The greater the mass of technically qualified manpower, the more will be the demand for industrialisation from the common people. It will make industrialisation a more widely acceptable way of improving life and enhancing regional growth,” Naveen said, …
Stating that he has a vision of establishing at least one industrial training institute in each block of the state, Naveen urged the industry captains to choose any zero-ITI block of their choice and immediately start the establishing an ITI offering trades that they think have market demand.
He advised the industries department to facilitate the process and guide the industrial and corporate houses in this regard.
Stressing the theme of this year’s event — “Building People, building Orissa” — the chief minister said meeting mandatory stipulations under different laws or complying with the guidelines of the resettlement and rehabilitation policy is just one small component of the corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Perhaps keeping the resistance by the locals to several industrial projects in mind, the chief minister advised the industries to have good relationship with the people and entities around their plants.
Shri S.K.Roongta, Chairman, SAIL along with Shri B.N.Singh, M.D. Rourkela Steel Plant called on the Chief Minister at Orissa Bhawan. They briefed the Chief Minister about the expansion plans of Rourkela Steel Plant. He intimated that it has been decided to increase the capacity of Rourkela Steel Plant from 2.1 million tonnes to 4.5 million tones hot metal with an approximate investment of Rs 10,000 Crore. He agreed to the suggestion of the Chief Minister to adopt the existing ITIs of the Sundergarh District and also launch Mobile Medical Vans for each block of the Sundargarh District to deal with the common medical ailments like Malaria. Chief Minister also asked the Chairman, SAIL to take up afforestation in the periphery area of the RSP in a big way.
This report from Sambada talks about the government of Orissa establishing educational institutes via PPP. This is a good idea. They should take help of the major industries in Orissa, especially the ones involved in using natural resources from Orissa.
Often various sundry organizations oppose various industries that are coming up just for the heck of it. A better approach would be to make sure the industry does not adversely affect them and then convince the industry to do positive things for the area. The later includes setting up of engineering colleges and necessary infrastructure like township, roads, parks, playgrounds, schools, medical facilities etc. Finally such an approach is being taken by the Koshali Ekta manch vis-a-vis Vedanta and Kalahandi. Despite the fact that Vedanta is in the process of making a world class university near Puri, they should listen to this demand, if only to give value to this general approach. Moreover, making an engineering college, of the kind made by most private trusts in Orissa, does not cost much. One can start it with an initial budget of 10 crores and then it can become self -sustaining through student fees. So Vedanta should seriously consider this. Also, people in other areas where industries are coming up, or have come up should take a similar approach. For example, the people in Paradip and Kujanga, rather than being hostile to POSCO should negotiate with POSCO to establish a medical college & hospital and a top-notch engineering college like POSTECH in Korea, that was established by POSCO. Same with respect to the Tatas in Kalinganagar; people in Kalinganagar should negotiate with the TATAs to establish an engineering college and a medical college in Kalinganagar. The Mittals should be asked for the same in Patana, Keonjhar area; RSP/SAIL should be asked for the same in Rourkela; MCL+NTPC should be asked for the same in Talcher area and NALCO for the same in Anugul and Damanjodi.
Following is an excerpt of a Pioneer report that triggered the above thoughts.
Bhawanipatna: A meeting of the Koshali Ekta Manch has decided that a memorandum would be submitted on August 24 to Vedanta Alumina limited in order to establish an engineering college in Kalahandi. … Manch leaders Jagannath Mund, Govind Chandra Rath and Padma Kishore Pujari were present at the meeting.
Today in Business Standard there is news that Central Coalfields has also agreed to set up an engineering college in Jharkhand. (Thanks to Deba Nayak for writing about it in the ornet.)
Orissa government must go after all the mining and metal related comapnies, be they public sector or private sector and urge them to do the same. The central public sectors in Orissa include NALCO, SAIL RSP, MCL, CIL and NTPC. We will write about the private sector in another positing.
Its time to convey to the Orissa government that they need to look out for all of Orissa and not just BBSR/CTC/Puri areas.
Following is a draft letter that one can send to the CM (cmo at ori.nic.in) about developing higher education and medical opportunities outside of the BBSR/CTC/Puri area. This is a draft. Please make changes to your liking.
If I missed your favorite location, please add them in your letter.
Dear all: Following is a letter that I have sent to the Chief minister. I would urge others to send a similar letter to cmo@ori.nic.in .
Thanks
Chitta
=========================================
Dear Chief minister:
I recently read that Bokaro steel plant (a unit of SAIL) has agreed with Jharkhand Government to set up an engineering college and medical college in Bokaro.
(See http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070226/asp/jamshedpur/story_7441681.asp)
The news report mentions that the TATAs, Mittal and POSCO are planning to put huge sums of money in the “Corporate Social Responsibility” fund. We suggest that the Orissa government start a formal policy of “From mineral resources to Human resources” and require that any company using Orissa minerals should contribute to the HRD develpment of Orissa. Depending on the size of the minerals used by the company the contribution could be of the form of making a medical college, an engineering college, several ITIs, science and technology magnet schools etc.
This policy should not be only for new companies or private companies, this should be also applicable for public sector companies and companies that are already in Orissa.
In this regard it has been reported that Bokaro Steel plant (part of SAIL) will be opening a medical school as well as an engineering college in Jharkhand. Why is Rourkela Steel Plant (also part of SAIL) not doing the same in Orissa? Why is Orissa government not approaching them about it. The Orissa government should also approach other public sectors such as NALCO, MCL (Mahanadi Coal Fields), and NTPC as well as its own OMC (Orissa mining corporation). These biggies should open a medical college each near their operational area and not in Bhubaneswar.
We must write to Orissa CM about this. I will come up with a draft letter in a few days.
