ROURKELA | Jan 12, 2015: The loss-making public sector Bisra Stone Lime Company Ltd (BSLC) at Birmitrapur in Sundargarh district and its workers continue to be in a precarious condition as it remains out of operation for nearly five months.
The company has failed to wriggle out of the conundrum of technical hurdles to resume production as both the State and Central Governments have not acted on their promises like handing over the company’s management to Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and issues related to the welfare of workers.
The company has incurred a loss of about `100 crore over a period of three years while external and internal debt, including staff salaries for seven months, and outstanding statutory dues account for `78 crore.
On June 3 last year, the dispatch of dolomite and limestone was stopped while the company suffered a huge blow when Birmitrapur mine was closed from August 13 last year following a July 18 notification of the Union Ministry of Mines and Steel to close all mines with pending renewals.
Sources said the State Government in September had decided to give ‘express order’ for operation of Birmitrapur mine but BSLC failed to comply with the norms within the six-month time given to it for mining renewal. As a result, the Government did not issue the ‘express order’.
Subsequently, BSLC filed a petition in Orissa High Court requesting to issue direction to the State Government to issue ‘express order’ and renew the mining lease. The petition is pending with the court.
Only the Birmitrapur mine of BSLC in an area of 744 hectares (ha) was in operation while five other mining blocks in about 355 ha have never seen any mining activity. Out of these five mining blocks, only Khatang mine having an area of 64 ha is stuck in forest clearance issues. A Palli Sabha meeting for Khatanag mine was conducted on Thursday which ended on a positive note. But various technical issues have posed obstruction for clearance of the rest of the mines.
General secretary of Gangpur Labour Union, an affiliate of Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Sandeep Mishra said BSLC has huge potential but it has to overcome technical hurdles at the earliest. “The Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) has approved the company’s mining plan for next five years and we are hopeful of obtaining the mandatory environment clearance (EC) certificate to raise production capacity to five million tonne per annum from the present level of 9.6 lakh tonne per year,” he said.
Birmitrapur MLA George Tirkey has reiterated his demand to immediately shift BSLC’s management from its holding company Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) to SAIL for its revival.
(Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/)