Bhubaneswar: The public hearing for Netrabandha Iron Ore Mines of Bhushan Steel & Power Limited, a JSW subsidiary, was successfully organized at Baladihi village under Koira Tahsil of Sundergarh district on April 27, 2022.
As part of statutory compliance, the public hearing was conducted in a peaceful manner for the requisite Environment Clearance. Over 500 villagers from periphery areas gathered at the event while 50 residents expressed their opinion in favour of the project. Residents from periphery villages— Khajuridihi, Sonua, Boldihi & Patamunda of Netrabandha Iron Ore Mines participated in large numbers.
With significant participation of villagers, the meeting was conducted smoothly in presence of many public representatives like Tushananda Kadali, Surendra Naik, Ashok Patra, Bipini Kadli, Damyanti Naik, Bonai MLA Laxman Munda, Chairman Suresh Naik, former Bonai MLA Bhimsen Ch Dehury, former Bonai MLA Janardhan Dehuri and Social worker Badal Barik. The public representatives put forth their views and favored the resumption of mining activities in the area.
The Netrabandha Pahar block located in Sundargarh’s Koira sector has geological reserves of 77.25 million tonnes of which 61.9 million tonnes are high grade deposits. It was clearly communicated that there would be no displacement under this mining activity and the company would implement modern technology and adopt sustainable mining practices with effective environment management.
The company is actively involved in periphery development in these villages even before its mining operation. An official said that company has renovated Anganbadis and provided Teaching learning aids & equipment. The company is installing around 200 street lights at the site for the benefit of the villagers. Besides, specific intervention to address drinking water crisis by installing bore-wells is underway.
Shortly, a mega health camp will be conducted in the project areas to address health related issues of villagers. For strengthening public health delivery, setting up of a dispensary is also in pipeline. An ambulance will also be provided to cut waiting time during health emergencies. Moreover, Village Level Coordinators(VLCs) recruited by the company are deployed at the village to provide continuous service at village level.
Most importantly, the company is opening up of new opportunities to facilitate direct and indirect employment to the local people. It was said that close to 300 people will get direct and indirect employment opportunities.
State government officials, Deputy District Magistrate Pradeep Kumar Dang, Rourkela State Pollution Control Board Regional Officer Binod Bihari Das, Scientist Vijay Kumar Bhoi, Koida Tahsildar DS Subhadarshi Joshi were present at the public hearing.
Company’s authorities like JSW COO Ranjan Nayak, Project Head Ashesh Kumar Padhy, Operation Head BRK Padhi among others were also present.
