By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR/PARADIP: Call it a positive gesture of Dhinkia villagers raises a ray of hope for Sajjan Jindal led JSW Steel’s ISP in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur, where South Korean Steel major, POSCO, had returned back empty handed few years back. With Sajjan Jindal’s look east steel policy, gathering strength in Odisha, India’s leading steel maker is successfully making progress for its Integrated Steel Plant in this costal district, which houses State owned Paradip Port Trust.
A different atmosphere is now being created for the Paradip__JSW Project. For many years, the Dhinkia panchayat under the Ersama Tahasil in the district, has been slowly weakening in the anti-industrial movement. The situation has changed in the past few days, but now the picture is changing. Many of the protesters are seen agreeing on the establishment of an industry.
Most importantly, some of the people who have been in the forefront of the movement against the JSW Project for the past three days have been voluntarily measuring their betlevine. Today 35 betlevine has been measured from Dhinkia,Mahala and Govindpur, Patana .8 of it were demolished.
The villagers of the three villages today voluntarily surveyed the betlevine in the presence of local tehsildars and other administrative officials and company officials. Five teams led by the Ersama tehsildar expedited the work. In the coming days, people have agreed to acquire the other betlevine in Dhinkia and Mahal villages.
A socio-economic survey was launched recently by JSW in collaboration with Xavier Institute for Management Studies, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), Bhubaneswar in the project site. The survey aims to capture immediate action points in sync with project activities inter alia employment potential, likely options for local procurement of materials, hiring of equipment & other services in the pre-project phase of the proposed Integrated Steel Plant (ISP).
JSW, the leading steelmaker of India had already declared its compensation package for the project affected people with ration card in the land losing villages of Nuagaon, Gada Kujang & Dhinkia GP, for its Integrated Steel Plant at Paradip. The compensation announced is way above the policy provisions outlined in the Rehabilitation & Resettlement Policy, Government of Odisha, 2006. The proposed compensation has emerged through a series of collaborative discussions at the district, GP and village level with extensive participation of villagers, district administration and other stakeholders to elicit public opinion.
Jindal South West Steel is among the largest steelmakers in the world with a current capacity of 24.5 MTPA. It is listed in S& P Dow Jones Sustainability index for emerging markets for Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) initiatives. The steel giant is expanding its steel-making capacity to 36.5 MT by March 2024. In Odisha, JSW Steel operations include a 2.5 MTPA subsidiary BPSL, 30 MT iron ore mines, 5 MT cement plant and 50 MT iron ore & coal terminal at Paradip port. JSW has proposed expansion of its brownfield project from 2.5 MTPA to 10 MTPA in a phased manner. The Paradip greenfield steel plant with 13.2 MTPA capacity is proposed with a 900 MW captive power plant, 10 MT cement plant and 12 MTPA jetty at Paradip.
