MINING AND INDUSTRIALISATION UPDATE, ORISSA - Vasundhara

participants from different promotionalagencies of the State Government, financialinstitutions, banks, NGOs and industries'associations attended the programme. Theobjective of the workshop was to involveinstitutional stakeholders and make themaware of the various aspects of the RGUMYand become Udyami Mitras (Friends ofEntrepreneurs) to enable them to providehand holding support to the new firstgeneration entrepreneurs. General Manager,IPICOL, BN Palai, gave a vivid presentationwith relevant data on the MSME sector andcompared the national data with the Statefigures, exhibiting the scope and areas ofimprovement.Bhuban is chromitesmugglers' paradisePioneer News Service , 30 July,2008Bhuban in Dhenkanal district, which wasonce renowned for brass utensils, has nowturned out to be chromite smugglers'paradise. Chromite is available in plenty inthe villages of Samal, Chandara, KanchanBahali, Kingola, Asura, Bandha, GaudaBandha, Sarpani, besides the much-hypedchromite field of Tangarpada under Bhubanblock, sources said. The poor and ignorantvillagers collect buckets of chromite and sellthe ore to the smugglers at a low price.Smuggling of chrome ore has beencontinuing since 1998 after the removal ofpolice guards from the mining fields.Earlier, former Dhenkanal SP BinayanandJha had successfully prevented thissmuggling by deploying police at theJamunakote Chhak, but after his transfer, thepolice personnel were removed from themining areas. Now, the State Government islosing crores of revenue and every day atleast 10 truckloads of smuggled chromite aresold to chromite fabrication plants inJagatpur and Keonhjar districts. Meanwhile,Mines Deputy Director office has said thattheir officials seized around 100 tonnes ofsmuggled chromite during the period from2006 up to September 16, 2007 at Talcher.The officials have also seized trucks bearingnumbers OAU 3377, OR 04/3-4696, OR 0R-09/C-6355, OR-04/D-5218, whiletransporting chromite from the fields.Sources claim that a truckload of chromitecosts about Rs 50,000.Nalco may close downDamanjodi unitENS, 30 July, 2008BHUBANESWAR: Faced with an acuteshortage of coal for the last two months, thealumina refinery of PSU Navratna Nalco atDamanjodi is on the verge of closure. And,with the shutdown imminent any moment,an SOS has been sent to Union CoalMInister Sis Ram Ola seeking his immediateintervention into the issue and initiation ofmeasures to restore workability of thealuminium major. In a memorandum to theMinister, Alumina Refinery ProgressiveUnion (ARPU) general secretary B.K. Jenasaid the facility was under a serious crisisdue to short supply of coal from MCL formonths. The coal stockyard has beenrendered almost empty and the totalshutdown in operations can come anymoment causing irreparable loss for thecompany and its staff. If the plant shutsdown, the loss would be to the tune of Rs6.50 crore per day. The maximum capacityof the plant was 5,315 MT alumina per dayand the average production ran into 4,500MT. Due to shortage of coal, the load hadnot surpassed 2,000 MT in the last weeksand had been sinking to a precarioussituation. Jena said at least 2,900 MT coalwas required per day to maintain the averageproduction and urged the Centre to takeurgent steps for resumption of supply. It isnot for the first time that Nalco has beenforced to cut down production due to coalshortage. In mid-June, the company’s dailyaluminium production, which hovers around900 tonnes, had dipped by about 30 per centdue to lowering of its power plant’s outputfollowing disruption in coal supplies. Nalco19