By Our Correspondent
PARADIP/BHUBANESWAR: The nightmare of Steel major JSW Steel of Sajjan Jindal on Tuesday went further from bad to worse with hundreds of students under the banner of Students’ Organisation of Biju Patnaik University barged into the Company office located in port town of Paradip in Odisha’s Coastal districts of Jagatsinghpur district, where the South Korean Steel giant POSCO, failed to commence its Rs 51,000 crore project and left midday.
Angry students, who were staged a protest meeting few days back at Company office, again, got aggravated after no response from the JSW Steel management to their demands.
Sources said, hundreds of students allegedly ransacked the office alleging non-fulfilment of job assurance by the company.
Students vandalized furniture, computers and other articles. Later, they headed towards police station to file a complaint against the firm. However, 8-10 of the students were detained at the police station. Tension ran high as cops resorted to mild lathicharge to disperse other students.
On the other hand, the company officials said a written complaint will be lodged against the students.Police have detained several students after they allegedly ransacked the office of JSW Group at Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district. However, the students did not stop their protest following which police resorted to lathi-charge and detained some students.
It may be noted here that, few days back , the District Administration of Jagatsinghpur held a public hearing for the project, which was opposed by Left Parties supported Trade Unions as well as Samajwadi Party workers also staged a protest meeting in Bhubaneswar on the same day.
On the other hand, the anti-project groups have started their home works holding meetings in Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Balitutha Panchayats. They have decided to oppose the JSW project citing it will jeopardise their livelihoods and create serious environmental hazards.
Meanwhile, the studied rivalry, sometimes coming to fore, between India’s two major Corporate Houses ArcelorMittal- JSW Steel , may delay Odisha’s ongoing already delayed mining auction for more times.
JSW Steel, on the other hand, has historically depended on the market for its raw material supplies. It has had small victories in recent times, having won rights to mines in Karnataka. But these are small — with reserves of 93 million tonne and annual production of about 7.5 MT — meeting about 35 percent of its needs.The mines in Odisha, on the other hand, will have reserves of nearly 600 MT.
Having own mines makes sense especially during an economic slowdown, like the present one. And this year’s slowdown was marked by low steel prices, but high rates of iron ore and coal, a situation that harms margins even more.
Mines are like a lifeline for the bottomline. To become the market leader, mines are the only way.This is the same reason that is driving ArcelorMittal and why it hopes to close the Essar Steel acquisition by 2019-end.
The studied silence and undue favour shown to Sajjan Jindal led JSW Utkal Steel Ltd in Odisha has raised many eyebrows with Odisha Government cancelling the ongoing bidding of 20 running mines expiring by March 30, 2020. Sources said, JSW Steel has submitted multiple bids through its subsidiaries for a few key mineral blocks on offer.
Among the first lot was the massive 767.284 ha Nuagaon deposit with reserves of 792.93 million tonne, larger than all other iron ore deposits on offer A net worth criterion of Rs 3872 crore had disqualified the incumbent lessee KJS Ahluwalia.
Of the fifteen technical bids received for Nuagaon, six were from companies or subsidiaries of the Sajjan Jindal led JSW Group – JSW Steel, JSW Raigarh, JSW Bengal Steel, JSW Jharkhand Steel, JSW Utkal Steel, and Amba River Coke.Elder brother Prithvi Raj Jindal’s Jindal SAW and younger brother Naveen Jindal’s Jindal Steel and PowerNSE -0.96 % and its subsidiary, Jindal Power, are also in the run.
Among the 20 mining blocks was the massive 767.284 ha Nuagaon deposit with reserves of 792.93 million tonne, larger than all other iron ore deposits on offer.Sources said the state government has received 15 technical bids for the Nuagaon block of which six were from companies or subsidiaries of a particular steel major, sources further said.
The fresh notification for auction of 20 mines issued on December 6, while the technical bid will be opened January 4 2020 next year, added the source. Letters of intent earlier expected to be granted to the highest bidder by January 2020 will now be signed in February next year.
