Date:10/07/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/07/10/stories/2004071007030500.htm

Tamil Nadu

Soren visiting NLC to study problems of project-hit people

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 9. The Union Coal Minister, Shibu Soren, will visit the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) to assess the problems of the project-affected people.

The Minister gave the assurance to the Pattali Makkal Katchi MP, E. Ponnuswamy, who represents Chidambaram, when he called on him earlier this week.

Mr. Ponnuswamy said here that the people, who gave land for the unit and were residing on its periphery, were seeking release of water for irrigation and drinking purposes. Only 40 per cent of those whose land was taken were given compensation. Contrary to a promise, qualified wards of the land givers were not even employed as casual labour. The other demands were protecting the people from fly ash and coal dust and provision of roads, health centres and educational facilities.

The MP pointed out that the Minister of State for Coal, Dasari Narayana Rao, had recently visited the unit without informing him. Protocol and courtesy demanded that he, as MP from the area, should have been informed, Mr. Ponnuswamy said.

In another memorandum, he urged the Minister to take steps to reopen the closed fertilizer unit of the NLC. He said the plant administration maintained that outdated technology, expenditure on production, marketing rate, government subsidy and import of raw material made the unit unviable. Mr. Ponnuswamy suggested that a Rs. 750-crore grant be given to modernise the ammonia plant and another Rs. 150 crores for the urea plant, which has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes a day, that liquefied natural gas or carbonised natural gas, available in nearby villages of Bhuvanagiri and Narimanam, be used, and that children of those who lost their land and house for the establishment of the unit be recruited with minimum wages.

Mr. Ponnuswamy also met the Rural Development Minister, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, and sought funds for construction of roads and provision of drinking water for over 1,300 villages in his constituency.