Bhubaneswar, Dec 29: Welcoming State government’s recent notification for auction of mines under the new MMDR Act, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) Chairman Naveen Jindal has said that the companies having end use plants in the State should get priority in the bidding process.
“Giving priority to the state-based plants, who have invested in thousands of crores here, will benefit in Odisha in creating more employment and bringing socio-economic development for people,” Jindal told reporters here after his meeting with Chief Secretary A P Padhi at Odisha secretariat.
Jindal added the process should be speedily completed. “People of the state will not get benefit if companies invested in some other state,” he said.
Once the local industries get priority, this would ease raw material availability for the end use plants in Odisha, he said adding, steel plants located in Odisha were facing difficult times.
Noting the steel industry was in a very bad shape, he said companies here were running at a loss because of dumping of steel by Chinese, Japanese and Korean industries at very low price.
In Odisha, there has been huge investment in the steel sector, which were incurring loss. A number of iron plants and pellet plants in the state have already closed down, he said adding, thousands of jobs have been also been lost.
