NALCO holds meet with village heads

The statesman reported that as part of its periphery development program, the smelter and power complex of National Aluminium Company Limited organized a meeting of village heads recently. The aim of the meet was to learn the views and opinions of the public representatives on how to expedite various development projects undertaken by the PSU. The company since its inception has so far earmarked INR 56 crore for various developmental activities in the 39 peripheral villages of Angul. At present, there are 485 works under execution for which the company has sanctioned about INR 16 crore. Of these, 256 works are being executed through government agencies and 229 works are being executed by the executants nominated by the BDOs and supervised by Nalco. In view of the huge backlog, the basic purpose of the meet was to gather feedback from the sarpanchs in the presence the sub collector and BDOs for expediting the execution processes. Mr KS Sreedhara ED of NALCO chaired the meeting. NALCO had acquired 4,103 acres of land for its smelter and power project out of which 3,496 acres was private land. Subsequently, NALCO has given employment to 1,635 land affected people which is about 36% of company’s permanent employee strength at Angul. Besides, the company has so far sponsored 831 LAPs for ITI training in 7 batches at a cost of INR 2.05 crore including a stipend of INR 1,000 per month. NALCO sources informed that while the revised rehabilitation and resettlement policy of the state provides for one time cash assistance to families in lieu of employment ranging from INR 0.1 million to INR 0.5 million, NALCO has offered one time cash assistance package in lieu of employment ranging from INR 0.25 million to INR 1.5 million to substantially affected persons who are not eligible for employment or opt for cash assistance. Till date, NALCO has paid INR 3.65 crore to 63 SAPs or their legal heirs. The presence of NALCO in Angul has also created indirect employment opportunities among the denizens, the sources added maintaining that of 243 contractors presently working in NALCO 122 are locals. Similarly, of the 9,502 contract workers engaged by NALCO contractors, 7142 are from the contiguous areas. Under the aegis of NALCO, 2 mobile medical vans with doctors and paramedical staff are conducting health camps for 25 days in a month and providing free medicines to the villagers. Besides, people living in the vicinity, take advantage of NALCO Hospital and the 2 schools run by the company. NALCO has also given user rights over 60 acres of its land to about 1,700 tribals and other contract labourers who had settled in smelter and power plant area. Besides, NALCO is spending INR 2 crore for them towards infrastructure development and other basic amenities. (Sourced from the statesman)