On Tuesday, a public hearing was held for environmental clearance to Joda east iron mines expansion of Tata Steel from theexisting 12.5 MTPA to 19 .5 MTPA with total excavation of 22.94 MTPA, along with expansion of beneficiation plant to 17.6 MTPA from 12MTPA.
Total 118 people who participated in the hearing spoke in favour ofthe expansion and put a slew of demands including preference to local youths in employment, increase of number of bed in Tisco Hospital, reduction in tuition fees in TATA DAV Public School, setting up city scan and dialysis machine in hospital, besides development of different wards of the Joda Municipality adjoining the mines. GM (M&Q), Nuamundi, Tata Steel, Atul Bhattanagar agreed to all the demands. Regional Pollution Control Officer Keonjhar, Puskar Behera coordinated the meeting which was presided over by Keonjhar ADM Sushama Billung. Among others, Chief ,Tata Steel ,Joda, Rajesh Kumar, Tehsildar, Barbil, Alok Patel, EO, Joda Municipality Bichitrananda Nayak, BDO, Joda Jagannath Hanuman and IIC Padmavati Sahoo were present.
