Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) has extended a helping hand towards 61 under-privileged farmers in Odisha's Sambalpur, raising the total number of peasants sponsored by it to 378 in the district, to enable them water their crop timely and reap a good harvest.
MCL, a leading coal mining CPSU and a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, has sponsored 61 more below poverty line (BPL) SC and ST farmers of Bamra, Jamankira and Kuchinda blocks of Sambalpur to avail Deep Borewell Secha Karyakrama Scheme of Odisha government and have own bore-well in their fields.
With these 61 beneficiaries, total number of under-privileged farmers sponsored by MCL to avail government scheme has gone up to 378 in Sambalpur district, a company statement said today.
The State government has a scheme under which an SC/ST BPL farmer can have their own deep borewell on making subsidised payment of Rs 9,000. However, many farmers in the district could not avail this scheme due to their low income.
The district administration took an initiative to identify such under-privileged farmers and requested MCL to sponsor them for the Deep Borewell Secha Karyakrama Scheme so that they can also prosper and contribute towards economic growth, it said.
State government's executing agency, Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation (OLIC), has a plan to provide deep borewells to these beneficiaries by April this year.
"Being a farmer means shaking hand with Mother Nature every day and contributing towards strengthening these hands is always an honour," said MCL's Director (Personnel) L N Mishra, who heads the empowered CSR Committee of the company.
Farmers are the mainstay of nation's economy and supporting agrarian segment of the society is one such area MCL is keen to work for, he said, asserting that positive change at the grass root level can ensure development.
Besides ensuring uninterrupted supply of coal to the power plants, MCL has been contributing through its popular CSR activities towards infrastructure and socio-economic development of under-privileged segments of the society, particularly in peripheral areas under its command.
A Rs 25 crore State-of-the-art Sports Stadium in Sambalpur, Rs 8.62 crore Burla water scheme, Rs 5 crore rope-way connecting Gandhi Minar at Hirakud, hostels to VSSUT and Sambalpur University to help students of far-flung areas get higher education, first electric crematorium of western Odisha at Sambalpur, setting-up a medical college at a cost of Rs 492 crore and Rs 30 crore cardiac hospital in Jharsuguda and running two nursing schools are among the long list of company's CSR activities.
