The industrial companies in Chhattisgarh has joined hands while demanding State Government’s proposal to make companies contribute a part of their Net profit in its ‘Community Development Fund’ under its ‘Corporate Social Responsibilty (CSR) Policy -2013’ as ‘Non obligatory’.
“Making it obligatory for a company to deposit a part of its Net profit in the ‘Community Development Fund’ will
hamper its relations with the residents around the manufacturing unit as the State Government would carry out works while utilising the funds in its way,” said Pradeep Tandon, Chairman of Chhattisgarh Chapter of PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PHDCCI) on Friday.
He was addressing a Workshop on ‘CSR & Social Enterpreneurship’ organised by PHDCCI, Chhattisgarh Chapter here.
Tandon remarked, “Money under CSR contributed by the companies may become part of a larger development funding exercise at the Central level while the company which had contributed the money would miss out the opportunity to serve people around its manufacturing unit in Chhattisgarh.”
He said that CSR is an important arm of the development process. “The local people who are affected by setting up of a unit in their region expect plenty of welfare measures and development
initiatives from the company, which is setting up the
project. They (local people) expect that the development of industrial infrastructure around them would bring them resultant benefits,” he added.
Tandon said that the local people who are affected by the setting up of projects in their region want the entire
industrial activity to become part of their daily life.
Dr Rajeev Roy, Associate Professor, Marketing & Entrepreneurship and Chairman, Placement & Corporate Communication, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Raipur, said that if one is working in the social sector, talent is not available cheaply.
“Companies intending to hire manpower would need to sensitise the talents on rural issues. There is also a pressing need to ‘recalibrate’ our social commitments,” he said.
JP Saboo, Past president of Urla Industries Association stated that under the CSR policy of Chhattisgarh, the funds contributed by companies would have to be deposited in the account of Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC).
“This is unacceptable. The companies must be allowed to spend the CSR money on their own,” he said.
“The Urla Industrial Estate has no regular water supply system and most units are utilising groundwater. let the CSR funds contributed by the industrial units in Urla gather funds together and create a water storage facility for use by the industrial units,” Saboo said.
Moreover, there is a population of a lakhs of people residing around the Urla Industrial Estate where Government school buildings are in a pitiable condition, he said.
“let the industry associations collect funds together and help repair the school buildings from the
CSR funds of companies,” Saboo suggested.
Divya Rajput, Head of the Centre for Business Innovation & IT Services, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs under Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs, stated that the companies under their CSR initiative can carry out developmental works themselves. “The provisions in the new Companies Act bill will make it possible for the corporates to spend the CSR funds on their own,” he added
Jatinder Singh, Secretary, PHDCCI said that the media needs to focus on inclusive and equitable growth issues while reporting on CSR initiatives.
“One needs to create a ‘negative list’ of CSR activities so that the funds are spent only for the purpose they were meant for. let there be no ambiguity on this,” he said.
Singh said that CSR work taken up without passion would be totally incomplete. ‘It (CSR) has to be aligned with the needs of the local populace’.
He said that CSR without the ‘Mission Mode’ would make one grope in the dark.