Tata Steel’s healing touch to woo agitating tribals
Tata Steel recently announced to build a 200-bedded hospital near its proposed Rs 18,000-crore integrated steel project at Gobarghati near Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex in Orissa.
The hospital, which will entail an investment of Rs 30 crores, will extend healthcare facilities to the people involved in the project and existing operational areas.
The company, according to industry sources, hopes that the initiative would help assuage the feeling of a section of local tribals who are opposing the project on the ground of possible displacement that the project will engender.
The proposed hospital will have round-the-clock service, pathology lab and outdoor complex.
"In phase-wise, the number of beds in the hospital would increase to 200. Also to begin with, the hospital would have four to five doctors and required number of para-medical staff," an official release said.
Apart from Tata Steel Parivar families, the hospital would cater to around 10,000 people from the nearby villages.
Various health services related activities like, rural health check-up programmes, health camps during epidemics and awareness building activities for people on health issues would also be planned through the hospital.
The Tata project has failed to take off because of resistance by a section of local tribals.
However, the premier steel conglomerate has been trying to woo their support by launching a flurry of corporate social responsibility programmes such as empowerment of women self-help groups through capacity building, imparting technical training the tribal youths and giving advanced training to the budding sports talent of the state.
Tata Steel has already placed orders worth over Rs 1,000 crores with different foreign and domestic companies for procurement of equipments.
The proposed 6-million-tonne per annum capacity steel project will come up in an area of 2,400 acres.
Akshaya Kumar Sahoo
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