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Bridge the Gap , Bring the Change
30 Jun 2013 1 Comment
in Advocacy, Announcements, Disability, Health Care, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Press Release, Prison Tags: Business, Human Rights, India, Jharkhand, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, Noamundi, Saranda, Saranda Forest, Steel, TATA STEEL
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03 Mar 2013 Leave a comment
in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights Tags: Bomb, India, Jagatsinghpur district, Paradip, Patana, Police, POSCO, POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, Press Trust of India, South Korea, Steel, Superintendent (police), Village
But anti-Posco agitators alleged the bombs were thrown at them by rival groups supporting the steel project.
“Our people were attacked as they opposed the construction of a road from Patana,” Abhay Sahoo, president of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, told the Press Trust of India.
South Korean Steel giant Posco signed an agreement with the Odisha government in 2005, but its project has been delayed because of protests over land acquisition and other bottlenecks.
Denying preparation of bombs by anti-Posco agitators as claimed by police, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) president Abhay Sahy said, “Three of our men are killed in the attack by project supporters. Our people were attacked as they opposed construction of a road from Patana to Balitutha.”
CPI leader Rama Krushna Panda, however, claimed that three PPSS activists were killed and another sustained injured when the project supporters hurled bomb at them.
“We have already informed the police about the incident and sought ambulance to carry the injured persons to hospital. But, ambulance was yet to reach the village,” Panda alleged.
17 Feb 2013 2 Comments
in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law Tags: Chief financial officer, Jamshedpur, June-July, Kalinganagar, Project finance, Steel, TATA STEEL, Tonne
“We are looking at closing our project financing for the Odisha project. It is an advanced stage… In phase-I, we will be funding around Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 13,000 crore on debt and then, after we complete (phase-I), we will take a call on (fund raising for) phase-II,” Tata Steel‘s group CFO Koushik Chatterjee said in a conference call.
The Kalinganagar project is the first integrated greenfield project for the company outside Jamshedpur in its over a century-old history.
The project has been divided into two equal phases of 3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and is estimated to require an investment of about Rs 35,000 crore.
The first phase of the project is expected to go on strea by June-July, Chatterjee said.
“Work is going on in full swing (at Kalinganagar project). We have significantly mobilised resources on-site and expecting to ramp up the same before the onset of monsoon season, some time in June-July,” he said, adding that the project is being funded at 50:50 debt-equity ratio.
He also said in the immediate future, Tata Steel is looking at only rupee loans but may go for foreign borrowings at a later stage.
Tata Steel has deployed more than 25,000 workers for the construction of the plant, which is being developed to produce flat steel products only.
The company had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Odisha government in 2004 only but due to protests at the site few years ago, in which 13 tribals were killed, had delayed the project.
Tata Steel is in possession of only 1700 acres of the land at present against a total requirement of over 5,000 acres for the full 6 MTPA capacity.
01 Oct 2012 5 Comments
in Advocacy, Announcements, Censorship, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights Tags: Business, Drinking water, Greenwich Mean Time, India, Jamshedpur, Jusco, Steel, TATA STEEL
JVM protests at JAMSHEDPUR Jusco office
More than 3,000 residents of slum areas and JVM activists led by Jamshedpur MP Ajoy Kumar staged massive demonstration at Jusco office for nearly three hours on Friday over failure of the company in providing power and water in 76 urban slums near Tata Steel command areas.
Leading the demonstration Ajoy Kumar said that they were forced to take such an agitation for the benefit of nearly seven lakhs urban slum-dwellers after Tata Steel and Jusco officials failed to heed to their demands.
“Though we had several meetings with officials of Tata Steel and Jusco over the issues of providing power and drinking water to the urban slum dwellers but nothing has been done so far. This has been laid down in the clause of the lease agreement between Tata Steel and State Government that they would have to provide civic amenities to slums near company township. But unfortunately, nothing happened forcing us to take up agitation,” said the MP.
The MP said that the Jusco was requested to atleast provide community taps in such urban slums and the cost of which would be borne by MP fund.
The MP accompanied by JVM central secretary Abhay Singh and other leaders threatened that they would chalk out strategy if Tata Steel does not take up any efforts in providing civic amenities in the slums within 10 days.
“We might even lock up Jusco gate if they fail to address the issue. They should provide basic amenities to urban slums in accordance with the lease agreement clause,” he noted. Jusco general manager town services Dhananjay Mishra refused to comment on the issue.
The JVM leader said, that on the one hand, the company is spending thousands of gallons of water for keeping the golf course green, but it is doing nothing to meet the need of drinking water to the slums surrounding it.
Meanwhile, the JVM functionaries declared that they would carry out similar protest every weekend unless the basic civic facilities are not extended to all the slums surrounding the company
22 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in Advocacy, Announcements, Health Care, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights Tags: Bastar district, Chhattisgarh, Human Rights, India, Maoism, Plant, Raipur, Steel, Steel mill, TATA STEEL, Tribal rights
Raipur, March 21 (IANS) Tata Steel, India‘s largest private sector steel major, has still to pay over Rs.27 crore compensation amount to villagers in Chhattisgarh‘s Bastar district to take over their land for setting up an integrated steel plant, the assembly was told Wednesday.
“Tata Steel is still due to make payment of Rs 27.35 crore compensation amount to the villagers. The company has so far paid Rs.42.07 crore,” Revenue Minister Dayaldas Baghel told the house.
The minister said Tata Steel would require 2,044 hectares of land for setting up the steel plant. As the proposed plant area comes in a tribal belt, the state would acquire land on behalf of company and allot it on lease.
But the compensation has to be paid by the company, the minister said.
Tata Steel, whichn inked a pact with the Chhattisgarh government in June 2005, is setting up a 5.5 million tonne per annum steel plant in Lohandiguda area in Bastar, some 340 km south of Raipur.
Baghel said the Bastar administration had acquired 1,764 hectare of land from 1,707 land holders located in 10 villages between October 2007 and February 2008.
01 Feb 2012 Leave a comment
in Human Rights Tags: Angul, Bajaj Auto, discrimination, Human Rights, India, Jindal Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, Naxalite, Orissa, Reliance Industries, Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, Steel, Tribal rights, Women Rights
See what happens to displaced villagers who protest against Jindal Steel in Angul, Orissa.
27 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in Advocacy, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Press Release Tags: ArcelorMittal, Asia, Central Reserve Police Force, discrimination, equality, Human Rights, India, Jagatsinghpur district, Karnataka, Kospi, POSCO, South Korea, Steel, torture, Tribal rights, Women Rights
January 27, 2012,
By Abhishek Shanker
Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) — Posco may build a smaller steel mill than planned in India after failing to secure enough land for what would be the biggest overseas investment in the south Asian nation, two people familiar with the plans said.
The world’s third-biggest steelmaker is looking to reduce the amount of land for the mill and iron ore mine project, said the people who declined to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly. The plant size may be cut to 8 million metric tons from 12 million, one of the people said.
Taking less land may help Posco clear the way to begin construction in the eastern state of Odisha after more than six years of delay as farmers refused to vacate the state-owned land they have occupied for generations. Pohang, South Korea-based Posco has kept pushing for the project through the delays, attracted by India’s average 10 percent growth in annual steel consumption over the past six years.
Posco may need only 2,800 acres, about 25 percent less than the 3,719 acres currently being sought, to build a factory of lesser capacity, the person said. The state, which has acquired more than 2,100 acres of land, halted a purchase in the Jagatsinghpur district in December after protests by the local population.
Vikas Sharan, a spokesman at Posco India, declined to comment.
“The state is doing its best to acquire land for the Posco project,” Raghunath Mohanty, Odisha’s industries minister, said in a phone interview. “It is not feasible to set a deadline but I hope the process would soon get over.”
Posco gained 1.7 percent to 423,500 won, at 1:16 p.m. in Seoul. The stock has declined 10 percent in the past year, compared with a 7.2 percent drop in the benchmark Kospi index.
Posco has also agreed to remove a clause in its original approval that allowed it to export 30 percent of the iron ore produced at the mine, one of the people said. The clause in the mining agreement with the Odisha state government was being renegotiated last year after it expired. Odisha was known as Orissa until its name changed in November.
The delays since 2005 mean Posco has already missed out on the over 60 percent jump in India’s steel consumption since then. Construction costs are also unlikely to come down from the 520 billion rupees ($10 billion) forecast in 2005 as costs have surged, one person said.
India’s steel ministry in November estimated the country’s demand for steel may grow at 9 percent per annum over the next five years.
Posco and rivals including ArcelorMittal, the world’s top producer, are looking to build steel factories in India on expectations the steel consumption there will outpace global demand. The nation’s steel ministry forecasts 9 percent growth in demand over the next five years.
ArcelorMittal has $20 billion of planned projects in the states of Odisha and Jharkhand and has also waited more than six years because of delays in securing approvals and land. The two companies have also planned investments in a proposed factory in the southern state of Karnataka.
ArcelorMittal may secure all the land for its $6.3 billion plant in the southern state of Karnataka by March, state Industries Commissioner Maheshwar Rao said on Sept. 20.
–Editors: Andrew Hobbs, Indranil Ghosh