Sukinda MlA Pritiranjan Ghadai demanded permanent jobs for local youths in all steel and other companies operating in Kalinganagar and its nearby areas in Jajpur district. The BJD MlA made this demand while addressing villagers and mines and plant workers at Kaliapani in the district. “Steel industries and chromites mines in the Sukinda Valley are discharging waste materials into the Brahmani system violating norms. The concerned authority is concerned only to provide water to big industrial houses but paying lip service to poor tribals,” he said, demanding actions against the pollution creating plants and mines.
He added that while lack of irrigation systems is a major problem for taking up agricultural activities in the Sukinda region, people, who had handed over their land to the companies on job assurances, have been betrayed. The companies and mines should immediately give jobs to the affected families, he demanded. He stated that the Sukinda Sramika Sangha is determined to help the workers who are not getting proper salaries. The Tata Steel plant, which would be commissioned within four to six months, has paid only lip-service to locals so far, Ghadai alleged.