Basudev now earns Rs 12000 a month

The Pioneer, Sept 29, 2008
Pioneer News Service | Bhubaneswar

Basudev Majhi, a youth residing at the rehabilitation colony in Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, is all praise for the Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) for providing educational assistance for completing his ITI training at the State capital. He is now earning Rs 12,000 per month. He says the company has changed his life and he is now leading a happy life with his family.

Basudev has become a role model for the displaced families in the locality. Other displaced families have also been trained and given jobs in the company's aluminium refinery.

A total of 2,500 local people have found gainful employment in the project till date. While about 2,000 people had got direct employment in the refinery, over 2,000 others get indirect income generating opportunities. Vedanta has brought a smile on the face of the people.

This project has not only created employment opportunities for the local residents but extended its support for the peripheral development, which a visitor to the area can well realise. As part of its corporate social responsibility, Vedanta this ongoing exercise, VAL has adopted all the 400 anganwadis in six blocks of Kalahandi district under the project Bal Chetana in association with the Sterlite Foundation and the Government of Orissa through private-public partnership.

The project looks after more than 40,000 children. More than 16,000 children are getting education at free of cost. The total expenditure on child welfare activities is over Rs 15 crore.

Vedanta has also started the VAL Sasya Silpa Abhiyan, an initiative of vegetable cultivation, in collaboration with the Asian Institute of Sustainable Development to give a boost to agriculture in the area. In an area of 550 acres of land, nearly 550 farmers from 45 villages are participating in the project as partners. The company bears the expenses for irrigation and has provided diesel pump sets to the farmers.

Vedanta also offers various self-employment schemes for the villagers, especially the womenfolk. Women self-help groups have been started under public-private partnership system for the Swastha Parivar project.

The company is providing improved livelihood through 99 SHGs, including 37 for women. It has opened 35 childcare centres where 1,300 children are getting education. It has started Project Ujjala to provide infrastructure facilities for electrification of 18 peripheral villages.

Besides, the company has planned to set up a centralised kitchen under the Nandi Foundation Programme to provide cooked food free of cost to schoolchildren of the district. "Initially, more 16,000 children will be benefited under the programme," said VAL COO Mukesh Kumar.

VAL has also planned to spend Rs 12.2 crore for development of tribals. It has already spent Rs 1.9 crore for development of Dongaria Kandhas at Niyamgiri. It is envisaged that once the project is completed, it will turn as a big catalyst for industrial development in the region.