Jindal Steel commissions India’s largest blast furnace

By Shivakumar G Malagi / Feb 18-2009/Bellary

Jindal Steel Works seems to have steeled itself in these tough times to commission the nation’s largest blast furnace at its Vijayanagar plant, modeled after the global steel major Gwangyang Steel Mill of South Korea's POSCO.
With the commissioning of the 4019-cubic metre, Blast Furnace-3 on Thursday in just 31 months, JSW, which spent Rs. 6,000 crore on it, expects to generate 8,000 direct jobs.
C. Shivasagar Rao, CEO and Joint MD, said BF-3 is the most modern furnace in the world, capable of achieving 10 mtpa.
“With 7 mtpa, JSW now equals the largest single steel plant of India (Tata Steels). When it reaches the 10 million tonne phase, it will become the largest single plant in India,” Rao said. “In a period of the worst global economic crisis, when other mills are shutting down, we are in hurry to create more steel for the development of the nation. But, I hate to export iron ore. That was done when India was not independent. We do not want to do that again, we should earn foreign exchange exporting finished goods, not the iron ore,” remarked Sajjan Jindal, vice-chairman and managing director of JSW.
Admitting that Tata Steels and JSW were neck-to-neck in the race for steel capacity, he said, “Today, we are ahead in production. But with its expansion plans, Tata Steels is pretty close to us. Let’s see who will produce more this year. I am confident that we will emerge big with the commissioning of the 10 mtpa project very shortly.” Ironically, JSW has been unable to get hold of a captive mine so far in this mineral-rich district.
This is despite the State government’s new mining policy laying focus on value-addition projects. Jindal attributed this to “long pending legal issues” and “hidden interests” in the mining business.

BELLARY POLICE FIRED TO DISPERSE FARMERS OPPOSING LAND ACQUISITION

By SHIVAKUMAR G MALAGI

Feb 15/2009


In what is seen as a grim reminder of the Haveri firing in June last year, the police on Sunday fired in the air to disperse a group of agitating farmers who were protesting against the acquisition of their agricultural land for construction of a green-field airport here. No casualties were reported.
Farmers from Siriwar, Sangankal and Chaganur villages have been protesting against the acquisition of their land for the past 40 days. According to eye-witnesses, the farmers number ing around a hundred, threatened to block National Highway 63 at Godehal Cross.
When the police tried to stop them, some farmers got into a verbal duel with the cops. The farmers who outnumbered the policemen, also damaged vehicles belonging to the police department, police sources said.
Sensing that the situation could go out of control, the police resorted to a mild lathicharge and fired tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. The Bellary tahasildar Bheemanaik made repeated pleas to the farmers to withdraw their stir and maintain peace but his attempts were in vain. After damaging police jeeps, the farmers beat up two police officials forcing the police to open fire in the air, police sources claimed.
“We were forced to fire seven rounds in the air to disperse the violent crowd that beat up two police inspectors and an assistant police inspector,” said superintendent of police Seemanthkumar Singh. He said the situation was now under control. Eleven people have been arrested in connection with the violence.
Reacting to the incident, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa said it was a conspiracy of Congress leaders to defame the BJP-led government. “Opposition leaders were finding it difficult to tolerate the growing popularity of the BJP government and were desperately indulging in such activity,” he claimed.
Farmers’ leader Mallikarjun Reddy said, “Who wants the airport? This is a dream of a few mining lords at the cost of 10,000 farmers. Farmers need not lose their fertile lands to such whims and fancies of mining lords and realtors.”

Luck by chance: Villagers cash in on pot holes

By SHIVAKUMAR G MALAGI

Feb/2009

If mining is lucra tive in Bellary, so are its pothole-filled roads. Villagers get a steady supply of iron ore as trucks transporting it from the mines constantly hit potholes, spilling some of the mineral on the roads, which people scramble to collect and sell to middlemen, making a tidy sum in the bargain.
Villagers in the BellarySandur-Hospet mining belt bank on the poor condition of the 60 km stretch of NH63 between Hospet and Bellary and other roads, which the lorries trundle over, to make a quick buck.
Women and children from villages on either side of the Bellary-Hospet and Sandur-Hospet mining belt and Banjara hamlets in the Sandur forest near the mining fields on the KarnatakaAndhra Pradesh border, are out most days collecting the fallen stones black with their iron content. They wait for the ore-laden trucks heading to ports on the eastern and western coasts to pass, and leap to collect the iron ore that fall off when the vehicles hit huge cratelike potholes.
For Shivamma of Sushilanagar in Sandur the “black stones” that she collects mean no less than hard currency. “I collect a minimum of two baskets and earn around Rs 60 a day. There are many who have become rich selling these stones. What I earn is very little but it is enough to feed my family,” she says.
But the easy money comes at a price. According to the police, several women and children have been crushed to death by the lorries on these roads. “Children who are in a hurry to collect the ore jump onto the road as soon as they fall from the truck risking being run over by other approaching trucks,” says traffic police constable Nagaraj of Papinayakanahalli.

"The whole world may not know where India is, but they sure know where Bellary is. We are approaching court against the government action. How can they assert that we encroached forest area without ascertaining the facts? I’m not against curbs on illegal mining activity. But government should not use the same whisk for both donkey and horse and what is happening on legal mines is extreme "

— Abdul Wahab, former president of All India Mine Owners and Traders Association