Former Odisha Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei appeals to CM Mohan Charan Majhi for reopening the closed MISL steel plant in Jajpur (ANI)
It has been a clear aspirational boon for Odisha all its long years the Mideast Integrated Steels Limited (MISL) factory at Kalinga Nagar, Jajpur is set up in 1993, this was the first major steel project of the MESCO Steel Group. Besides, the government held considerably captive 150 hectares of iron ore in Keonjhar for use in the plant.
Beyond this, more than 200 families from Khurunti, Siaria and Nanagobindapur villages in Sukinda and Danagadi blocks sacrificed 650 acres of land to establish the factory. The Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation extended soft loans while the government built a railway line to aid the plant in increasing efficiency and production.
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This plant has remained shut since February 12, 2020, with the culmination of all that beautiful foundation backing it, compelling the local economy to a grinding halt and plunging thousands of families into darkness. In all, more than 2,000 workers and indirectly reliant individuals associated with MISL were stripped of their livelihoods almost overnight.
Prafulla Chandra Ghadei, former finance minister, said that this betrayal of the employees and displaced households that made sacrifices toward the project is not appreciated. Even while soliciting fresh investors and industrial units to set up in Odisha, he noted, this plight of retrenched MISL workers could not be ignored. Indeed, their condition reminds one very starkly that growth must not be at the expense of humans.
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Ghadei, in a letter to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, has pressed for urgent action to restore MISL operations. Reopening the factory, he added, is not merely about restarting production but a matter of restoring dignity and ensuring livelihood for the large number of families displaced from their land and denied job opportunities in the first place.
With the state government earnestly courting investment in industries, reopening an already established and functioning unit may be a nugget in the gem. Not only would it serve the affected employees, but it would also boost investor confidence in Odisha's industrial ecosystem.
The MISL case teaches an important lesson that sustainable industrial growth must be annoying to the extent that economic progress is also underpinned by social accountability. This is not an economic requirement it is a moral obligation to those who bore the brunt of development.
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