Four steel cos sign pact to give Rs 2 cr to set up school

Four steel giants have signed agreements to give Rs 2 crore for setting up a school of privately run Amity Group in Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma's Gonda constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
SAIL, NMDC, RINL and MOIL - four major firms under Steel Ministry - signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Amity Group for cumulatively providing Rs two crore financial assistance for the school, a source in the Ministry said.
"The four have been asked to contribute equally for the school which would be set up in Gonda. Keeping in mind that the model code of conduct for general elections would soon come into force, the foundation stone laying ceremony is likely in next few days," the source said.

Verma, who also attended MoU signing ceremony here, could not be reached. Heads of steel PSUs, when contacted, declined comments due to "sensitivity" involved in the issue.
The Standing Committee on Coal and Steel in a report tabled in May last year in Lok Sabha had said rapped the PSUs on using their CSR funds mostly in two districts of UP.
"The Committee are appalled to note the haphazard manner in which CSR activities have been carried out by Steel PSUs in particularly two districts of Uttar Pradesh namely Barabanki and Gonda."

Verma has won from the Gonda constituency for five consecutive times. Barabanki is the birthplace of the senior Congress leader.

"The Committee fail to understand the logic behind concentrating their activities by all the steel PSUs in these two districts as if the headquarters of these PSUs have been shifted to these two districts," the panel, headed by Kalyan Banerjee, said.
This was "nothing but gross abuse of power by the Ministry and to satisfy the Minister-in Charge," it added.
SAIL spent Rs 8.19 crore on CSR in Uttar Pradesh during 2012-13. Out of that, 90.6 per cent went to Barabanki, Gonda and Balrampur. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam has also spent Rs 2.06 crore on CSR in Uttar Pradesh out of the total Rs 12.68 crore spent during the entire 2012-13.

NMDC spent Rs 3.63 crore in the state on CSR in 2012-13 and out of this Rs 3.53 crore or 97 per cent of the fund was spent in Barabanki and Gonda. MOIL also spent Rs 88.38 lakh in Gonda out of its total Rs 6.55 crore spent on CSR during the last three years.
"The Committee note with concern that the utilisation of major CSR funds has taken place by steel PSUs in these districts of Uttar Pradesh where none of the above mentioned PSUs have any major steel plant or project in the constituency of steel minister," the report had said.