By Our Correspondent
KALAHANDI/BHUBANESWAR: With Odisha’s COVID-19 positive cases reached at 54 and Odisha Government making all out effort to contain the spread of COVID-19, Anil Agarwal led Vedanta Group has joined hands with Naveen Patnaik led Government in this mineral bearing State to fight back the onslaught of the dreaded disease.
Sources said Vedanta Lanjigarh, engaging with various stakeholders, has touched over 1 lakh people through its safety and prevention measures to fight against COVID-19. Vedanta is taking extensive steps to ensure that the community, associate partners, employees, other stakeholders, and all their families are equipped and sensitized to respond to COVID-19.
The plant is running operations with minimum workforce and limited resources, adhering to all the COVID-19 guidelines issued by the central and state authorities. However, the organization has marshalled all its resources to undertake preventive measures for its employees, business associates and community at large in, around and far beyond its plant area.
Rahul Sharma, CEO- Alumina Business said, “Our communities are at the heart of everything we do. We have galvanized all possible resources to protect our communities from COVID-19 and we seek their support to ensure social-distancing and all precautions, to collectively combat COVID-19. We are firmly standing together in the face of this pandemic and the leadership team at Lanjigarh is closely monitoring how we can be of even greater service at this time of need.”
The company’s initiatives undertaken with the support and guidance of the district administration are varied:Over 1,00,000 washable cloth masks are under preparation through local self-help groups of which 40,000 have been distributed free of cost to the communities in tandem with the district administration.
Over 100 self-help group members are being provided free of cost training, sewing machines and raw materials as required, so they have a regular source of income to support their families at this time when sources of livelihood are scarce.
The district administration’s COVID hospital in Bhawanipatna has been given 60,000 surgical gloves, 25,000 surgical masks in addition to surgical gowns, and 6,000 bottles of sanitizers.
Over 20,000 soaps have been distributed to the villagers.
Vedanta’s CSR team, Mobile Health Units, employee volunteers along with Aanganwadi workers and health workers are covering over 70 villages to spread awareness on COVID-19 prevention and social-distancing, in addition to distributing masks and soaps.
Over 1100 workers are being provided with meals twice a day along with other essentials.
Over 500 employees of Vedanta’s Lanjigarh refinery have voluntarily contributed one day’s salary for COVID-19 relief.
The company’s 20-bedded hospital is in a state of preparedness to support the district administration. The hospital continues to serve about 7000 patients per month from the community. A 24×7 telephonic helpline has been set up by Vedanta hospital to address any queries or concerns on COVID-19 from the community.
Fumigation and disinfection of all prominent public places, local areas, public offices, and township are being undertaken.Police personnel have been provided with water coolers and water purifiers to aid them in this small way in the service they are doing for the community’s wellbeing.
Thermal-gun temperature screening and provision of proper Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs), social-distancing, frequent hand-washing and other preventive measures have been undertaken for all personnel entering and working in the plant.Enhanced surveillance and restricted movement inside the plant and township premises to protect the employees and their families.
The company is continuing its preventive measures for the community in collaboration with the district administration, health workers, its employees and their families, business associates and NGO partners for wider sensitization to fight the pandemic. Several employees have volunteered to take care of food and medicine requirements of underprivileged families that have been adversely impacted by loss of livelihood due to social-distancing.
Vedanta is the largest producer of aluminium in India and remains the premier manufacturer of metallurgical grade alumina. The company operates a 2 MTPA(million tonnes per annum) capacity alumina refinery in Lanjigarh (Kalahandi district, Odisha), India since 2007 and an associated 90 MW captive power plant.
