A district level coordination meeting was held on Thursday at Jagatsinghpur Collectorate for fast tracking JSW integrated steel plant at Paradip.

The meeting was convened by Collector Jagatsinghpur Parul Patawari, in presence of local MLA Raghunandan Das, Minister for Irrigation, I & PR, Member of Parliament Dr Rajashri Mallick and SP Akhilesvar Singh.

COO JSW Ranjan Nayak and other senior officials attended the meeting with over 60 PRI and PS representatives from the ISP project villages such as Dhinkia, Gadakujang, Nuagaon, Govindpur and Mahalo.

The event provided much-awaited opportunity post pandemic for interaction among all parties involved, especially for local people in project area to voice their issues and get firsthand information from project authorities. The forum acted as a trust building platform and paved way for project grounding in the coming month.

“We are extremely thankful to the Government and the district administration for making this possible and our objective is to ground the project within the stipulated time frame for maximum benefit of the people in the region,” said JSW COO Ranjan Nayak.

At the outset of the meeting, the JSW officials outlined operations in Odisha and the CSR proposal for the project site, which was followed by a quick start on the issues related to compensation for betel vines, prawn cultivators, fishermen, forest committee. The revised rates were discussed by PRI representatives and negotiated by all involved. Subsequently, it was agreed that the discussions would cascade at village level for a broader acceptance.

Among the primary issues discussed were revised compensation rates for betel vine owners, labor, skilling and employment opportunities for youth in the region, etc.