ANGUL: The Smelter and Power Complex of National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco) organised a Sarpanches’ Meet here recently as part of its periphery development programme.
The company, since its inception, has so far earmarked Rs 56 crore for various developmental activities in the 39 peripheral villages of Angul. However, at present 485 works are under execution, for which the company has sanctioned about Rs 16 crore.
Of those, 256 works are being executed through government agencies and 229 by executants nominated by the BDOs and supervised by Nalco. In view of the huge backlog, the basic purpose of the meeting was to gather feedback from the sarpanches, in the presence of sub-collector and BDOs, for expediting the execution processes.
Executive Director, Nalco, K.S Sreedhara chaired the meet. Nalco had acquired 4103 acres of land for its smelter and power project, out of which 3,496 acres was private land. Subsequently, Nalco has given employment to 1,635 land affected persons (LAPs), which is about 36 per cent of company’s permanent employee strength at Angul.
The company has so far sponsored 831 LAPs for ITI training in seven batches, at a cost of Rs 2.05 crore, including a stipend of Rs 1000 per month.
While the revised rehabilitation and resettlement policy of the State provides for one time cash assistance to families in lieu of employment ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, Nalco offered one time cash-assistance package in lieu of employment ranging from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh to substantially affected persons (SAPs), who are not eligible for employment or opt for cash assistance.
Till date, Nalco has paid Rs 3.65 crore to 63 SAPs or their legal heirs, according to a release.