Tatas to employ Gopalpur youth

Tata Steel has agreed to provide employment to youths from the displaced and affected families of its shelved Gopalpur steel project in its other facilities. It will do so in a phased manner.

This was decided at a high-level meeting held recently at Chhatrapur, the Ganjam district headquarter, which was attended by the district officials, representatives of the company and the affected youths.

About 250 youths had received training in Berhampur and Jamshedpur and the company had promised to rehabilitate them in the steel project.

With the company shelving the project, it has absorbed 100 of them in different Tata group projects, while 150 trained youths are yet to be rehabilitated.

Demanding jobs, these unemployed young people were agitating time and again.

"We have decided to prepare a panel list of the unemployed youths and will try to rehabilitate them in different projects of the Tata group companies," said Sanjay Patnaik, the chief resident executive of Tata Steel.

The list will be completed by December-end and 50 of these youths could be absorbed in January next, added the additional district magistrate Sangram Keshari Ray.

Tata Steel had acquired about 3,700 acres for setting up a shore-based mega steel plant at Gopalpur in 1996. But due to the lack of core facilities and other reasons, the company had shelved the project and announced the setting up of a multi-purpose special economic zone (SEZ) on the same land. Its proposed 1,173-hectare SEZ has, meanwhile, been cleared by the Board of Approval (BoA).

About 600 families of Sindhigaon, Patrapur, Badapur, Kalipali, Paikapada and Mansorekota had been displaced, while several persons from Jagannathpur, Chamakhandi, Sitalapali, Narendrapur, Badakusasthali and Sanakushasthali were partially affected due to acquisition of their land.

The Action Committee of Tata Trainers, an panel formed by the unemployed youths, however, said only 30 to 35 trained youths have been rehabilitated by the company so far. The company

had promised to provide a job to at least one person from each of the affected families at the time of acquiring land.

"With the hope of getting a job in the company, we had voluntarily vacated our land. But our hopes are dashed after a decade of being displaced," said Krushna Gouda of Patrapur village.

Gouda, along with 250 others, was trained in Tata's Jamshedpur unit after going through courses on different technical subjects at the Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Berhampur.