Jobs for oustees before Jindal project goes onstream

While the West Bengal government is still grappling with the political opposition even after announcing a rehabilitation package to the land losers of Tata Motors' project in Singur, the Andhra Pradesh government has gone a step ahead.

The state government has announced a job for each of the 600 families losing land in the Jindal Group's proposed aluminium project with a monthly Rs 3,000 up front salary compensation till the project is commissioned.

This is in addition to the Rs 2.05 lakh per acre net compensation and Rs 1.75 lakh worth of shares in the company offered to each of these families.

While the employment is guaranteed to one person from each of the displaced families as per their qualification, a one-time financial grant of Rs 3 lakh is also being offered to families who do not want the job. Also, the company will build houses for each of the 600 displaced families at its own cost with all the amenities.

Considered to be the most controversial of all the projects, the state government had engaged the Andhra Pradesh Mining Development Corporation (APMDC) to mine the bauxite reserves falling in the reserve forest areas of the Visakha agency while entering into MoUs with the Jindal Group a couple of years back and Ras Al Khaimah recently.

The Jindals and the UAE firm have proposed to set up alumina and smelter projects with an investment of over Rs 9,000 crore and Rs 8,000 crore respectively in the state. The corporation will supply bauxite ore to these projects at a mutually agreed price.

The state Cabinet, which met here on Wednesday, cleared the allotment of 1,048 acres of land to Jindal South West Aluminium Company Limited in the S Kota area in Vizianagaram district along with a rehabilitation package for the land losers.

Of this, 866.67 acres is assigned land, ie, given away by the government in the past to the landless scheduled cast and scheduled tribe families. The company proposes to build the phase one project in a year from the date of handing over the land.

The state government has gone ahead with the MoUs, allotment of bauxite reserves and land, even though the mining licences applied by the APMDC are yet to be cleared by the Centre.

"We expect the mining licences soon since the state government has made all the mandatory arrangements, including the provision of alternate land for afforestation to compensate the damage caused to the existing forest area on account of bauxite mining," K Prabhakar Reddy, additional secretary to the chief minister told Business Standard.

The Opposition parties are opposed to bauxite mining as they feel it would displace the tribal population in forest areas. According to the Geological Survey of India, about 1,000 million tonnes of bauxite reserves are estimated to be available in the Visakha agency.

Meanwhile, the public sector Nalco (National Aluminium Corporation Limited) too is keen to set up an aluminium smelter plant in Visakhaptnam, according to officials.

Earlier the state government had refused to give mining areas to Nalco as sought by the company.

"The government will now supply bauxite ore through the APMDC to all those who come forward to set up their projects here, including Nalco," Prabhakar Reddy, who deals with mining in the chief minister's office, said.

The state Cabinet also cleared the proposal to allot over 1,000 acre of land to Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) in Kadapa district for uranium mining. UCIL has proposed to undertake uranium mining in Kadapa and Nalgonda districts.

The company is expected to produce 411 tonnes of uranium per year.

The proposed uranium project in Nalgonda district was supposed to commence operations first. However, with the chief minister's active interest in the project in his home district, the Kadapa project was the first to be allotted land.

When contacted, a UCIL official said the corporation would require some more time before starting the operations as the land allotted by the state government involves the acquisition of some private lands too.