Orissa to review steel projects once a month

With a view to expedite various steel projects facing inordinate delay in the state, the steel and mines department has decided to review their progress on a monthly basis.

The meeting will be chaired by the steel and mines secretary and will have representatives from the department of water resources, revenue, energy, forest and environment department.

The Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), the land acquisition arm of Orissa government, Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol) and Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) will also be roped in the process.

“We intend to give a push to the steel units coming up in the state and regular monthly meeting will be held on every fourth Saturday. Steps will be taken to resolve the issues in an expeditious manner based on the industry feedback”, Ashok Dalwai, secretary, steel and mines department of Orissa government told Business Standard.

About 8-10 industries will be invited to the review meeting and problems will be resolved after getting the feedback from the units. While selected companies will be invited for the monthly meeting, quarterly review meeting will involve more industries.

In a simultaneous move which could have a long term bearing on the disposal of the pending Renewal Mining Lease (RML) applications, the department has decided to hold regular review on every third Saturday of the month. About 10-20 RML applicants will be called to attend each meeting. If the designated days happen to be a holiday, then the meetings will be held on the previous day.

Sources said, the meeting on expeditious disposal of the RML applications will be chaired by the secretary of steel and mines department. Besides, the representatives from the forest and environment department and OSPCB will also be requested to attend the review meetings.

The decision to hold regular review meeting with the industries assumes importance as various industry bodies like Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have been pressing the government to extend a supporting hand for land acquisition, allotment of water and recommendation for mining lease (ML) among others. Since the state government can’t grant mining lease (ML) in the absence of the statutory clearances, this is acting as a dampner.

While the Union ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) takes one or two months to give forest and environment clearance, there is long delays in obtaining clearances at the state government level. In this backdrop, the representatives from the forest and environment department will be requested to attend the meeting for disposal of the RML applications. On the spot decision may be taken as to whether a RML application should be pursued further or simply rejected, sources added.

Meanwhile, the steel and mines secretary has introduced once a month review of the works of the directorate of mines (DoM), directorate of geology (DoG) and Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC). One special meeting is being held to oversee the implementation of OMC projects.