Assembly Elections 2016: With promise of steel plant, jobs fading, how will Salboni vote?

The TMC government delayed the setting up of a power and steel plant by JSW Steel as it questioned land approvals for the mega project

In the din of corruption allegations against the ruling the Trinamool Congress - first in the form of a sting operation by Narada News portal and then in a much bigger and serious proportion with the flyover collapse in old Kolkata claiming 26 lives - the original attack theme of the Opposition, industrialisation, may have got drowned out. But as West Bengal - 18 seats in the districts of West Medinipur which includes Salboni, Purulia and Bankura - votes today, for people who hoped to prosper from the benefits of a mega steel plant, it is likely to weigh in.
 
Salboni is the site for a 10 million tonne steel plant and a 1,600 MW power plant of the Sajjan Jindal-controlled JSW Steel group, as conceived during the earlier Left Front government in 2007. But the initial dilly-dallying by the present day government, in a way, buried its prospects.

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In January, the JSW group, which has 4,300 acres at Salboni, laid the foundation stone for a much smaller project, a 2.4 million tonne cement plant that would require 134 acres and cost Rs 800 crore; the steel and power plant project was Bengal's single largest investment at Rs 35,000 crore.
 
Reports from Salboni suggest that people are not particularly happy with the current version of the project though cement is supposed to be the first of a series of projects planned by JSW.
 
JSW Cement will boost the capacity to 4.8 million tonnes in the next 36 months, plus, there is an intent to set up two power units of 660 MW each. At some point, a paints unit could also be set up. All put, the investment, however, is unlikely to exceed Rs 10,000 crore.
 
But it may not have gone that way for the mega project.
 
JSW Steel had concluded the agreement with Banerjee's predecessor, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and it was the CPI(M) Chief Minister who, along with then Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, had laid the foundation stone for the Rs 35,000 crore JSW Bengal Steel project in 2008. For Banerjee, when she assumed power in 2011, Jindal was the poster boy of the Left government.
 
In September of that year, Jindal came down to assure the state government that it would start work on the steel project right away. But crucial time was lost when the Banerjee government started scrutinising the land deal. It was found that JSW had not signed a lease agreement (a technical common with most projects) despite possessing legally permissible land at Salboni. The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, which had acquired 189 acres for the project, pointed out that the company had not obtained clearance from the land reforms department for the private land that it had acquired. Ultimately, it was 'resolved' by the Banerjee government by vesting the land and leasing it to the company.
 
In the interim, the steel cycle turned and raw material supply became a major headache for most steel companies. And somewhere down the line, the state government cancelled the power purchase agreements with the company. In 2014, JSW officially, put the project on hold.

At the foundation stone laying ceremony earlier this year, Banerjee asked the 571 land loser families, not to be impatient. "They have promised, in phases, people will be employed," she said. But is Salboni willing to wait any longer? Today is their day to decide.

 
                                                                            TIMELINE
 

• 2008: Then Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee lays steel plant's foundation stone
• 2009: Sajjan Jindal says the project has been delayed due to the global financial crisis
• July 2011: CM Mamata Banerjee publicly expresses disapproval over delay in project
• August 2011: Rumblings about JSW land acquisition start
• September 2011: Jindal meets CM; Banerjee says all issues will be resolved
• 2014: Jindal says, project looks difficult without raw material linkages
• 2016: Mamata Banerjee lays foundation stone for cement plant