MINING AND INDUSTRIALISATION UPDATE, ORISSA - Vasundhara

egulations or not. “Further, in each andevery mining site at lest 10 per cent to 15per cent of the leased area should be keptundisturbed and protected which shouldremain as an eye opener for the miners,beneficiaries and general public to comparepast with the present and predict the lossbeing made to bio-resources. Although theMinistry of Environment and Forest (MoEF)did not the NBSAP, several states had comeout with their respective action plans forpreservation of bio-diversity. The report wasreleased on the occasion of NWCSO’s silverjubilee meeting here. Ajit Kumar Patnaik,honorary secretary of the organisation gavea brief description about the activitiesundertaken by the NWCSO. Among othersS. K. Patnaik, working president of theNWCSO and M. F Ahmed, former InspectorGeneral of Forest (MoEF), were present.‘No SAIL, HSCL merger’Statesman News ServiceBHUBANESWAR, July 14: Sundergarh MPand BJP national vice-president Mr JuelOram today claimed that the Union ministerof steel, chemicals and fertilisers Mr RamVilas Paswan has informed that thegovernment has ruled out the merger ofHindustan Steelworks Construction Limited(HSCL) and Steel Authority of IndiaLimited (SAIL). "The merger is not possibleas there is no synergy of operation betweenthe two units," Mr Paswan has reportedlyinformed the MP. In a recent communiquéto Mr Oram, the Union minister has said thathis ministry has already submitted a note ofproposal for revival and restructuring ofHSCL to the Board for ReconstructionM ofPublic Sector Enterprises. "The saidproposal is aimed at strengthening thefinancial condition, manpower andmanagement structure of the company,which will also take care of the problemspresently being faced by the staff of HSCL,"Mr Paswan said. It may be recalled here thatMr Oram had shot of a missive to the Unionminister highlighting various grievances ofHSCL employees and the problems faced bythem. The main demands of the HSCLemployees were enhancement of retirementage from 58 to 60, release of dailyallowances, leave encashment andrestoration of suspended fringe benefits suchas LTC and LLTC. The employees alsodemanded the posting of engineers at theRourkela unit of HSCL claiming that sincethe last two years, no recruitment has beenmade at HSCL, Rourkela in spite of heavyinput of modernisation packages. It may bementioned here that since its inception,HSCL was a subsidiary of SAIL and it waspulled out of SAIL in the year 1977. It wasmade an independent PSU under the steelministry.‘Vedanta rehabilitationpackage is best in state’Statesman News ServiceBHUBANESWAR, July 14: VedantaAluminium Ltd (VAL) offers the bestrehabilitation package in the state, claimedcompany sources here recently. Thecompany aims to reduce the impact of itsactivities on the environment, whereverfeasible. The majority of the sites arecertified by the international environmentalmanagement systems standard ISO 14001.This includes the requirement thatenvironmental impacts are identified. Thereare ongoing programmes for improvementacross key impact areas, they said.Responding to the critics of its bauxitemining project at Kalahandi, Vedantaofficials said that all 120 families that weredisplaced for the project have gotpucca houses with round-the-clockelectricity and water supply.Besides one youth from each displacedfamily has been trained and given a job inthe refinery, adding that a total of 2,500local people have found employment in therefinery project till date. “While about 2000people had got direct employment at therefinery in Lanjigarh, over 2000 others weregetting indirect income generating10