Munda to call on Mittal for steel project

Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda will be stopping over at London to meet steel tycoon L N Mittal while returning from his nine-day trip to the United States.

According to a top official in the chief minister's office (CMO), Mittal's office in London had already approached to get an appointment.

The proposed meeting assumes significance in the backdrop of Mittal's statement that he was disappointed at the slow progress of work and procedural delays relating to his proposed steel project in Jharkhand.

Munda, according to the CMO source, would reach London on July 23 or 24 to meet Mittal.

Munda would discuss with Mittal how the bottlenecks that stood in the way of the proposed steel project could be sorted out.

The CMO source said the chief minister believed Mittal Steel would not withdraw from the Jharkhand project as the state government had assured the steel major full cooperation and availability of land and iron ore.

In his forthcoming meeting with Mittal, Munda would reassure him about the Jharkhand government's commitment.

Mittal's swing towards Orissa, ironically a neighbouring state also ruled by the NDA coalition, had upset Munda and he had issued stern directions to bureaucrats to take immediate follow-up steps on the long-pending mine lease applications. The CMO source could not give the exact number of mine applications pending before the state government.

Other types of commitments had also been made by the state government in its agreements with various investors.

Acting upon the chief minister's instruction, chief secretary M K Mandal recently reviewed the progress of land acquisition.

It was decided at the meeting that the Jharkhand Industrial Development Corporation (JIDCO) would act as a single window agency to remove the hurdles related to selectuion and allotment of land and mines.

The state's industry department pointed out at the meeting that the absence of a state rehabilitation policy and problems in procurement of forest land had led to delay in land acquisition process.

Mittal had expressed concern about lack of progress on his proposal to put up a proposed 12 million tonne greenfield steel project in Jharkhand.

The mines and geology secretary of Jharkhand state, S K Satpathi, told the chief secretary that a letter of comfort had been sent to Mittal Steel 15 days before L N Mittal visited Bhubaneswar, assuring him that required iron ore mines for the Mittal Group for the proposed steel plant would be allotted soon.

Sources in the state mines and geology department said that litigation had ruled out the immediate allotment of blocks of the Chiria iron ore deposits to Mittal Group.

However, the state government had provided the toposheets of several areas to Mittal Steel and asked it to select the most suitable mines.

However, Jharkhand's track record in such matters was far from perfect.