Steel secretary RS Pandey (left) at the meeting. Pix: Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Nov. 3: Union steel secretary R.S. Pandey today held a marathon meeting with investors to review the MoUs that the government had signed with them.

During the meeting, about 30 small-time investors complained that despite having established their plants in the state, the government was not providing them iron ore leases.

This has forced them to buy iron ore from open markets at a much higher cost, which, in turn, is escalating the cost of the production, they claimed.

The Union steel secretary has criticised the state government for not formulating a policy for the distribution of iron ore to the investors in the steel sector.

He also suggested that the government formulate a policy in which the investors, who have already set up plants, should be given the priority in getting the iron ore leases.

“The parties that have already established steel plants should be given the priority in getting iron ore,” Pandey said.

In the first leg of the meeting, Pandey discussed matters with senior functionaries from companies like Tata Steel, Mittal, Essar, Jindal Power and Steel and Jindal South West. In the second leg, officials from smaller players like Vallab Steel and Adhunik Steel took part.

In a reply to a query, Pandey confessed that some of the investors have expressed unhappiness about the present available infrastructure in the state. “But the Centre should play a pro-active role in boosting the infrastructure,” he added.

The Union government, he stated, is confident that in the next five years, Jharkhand will produce another 10 million tonnes of steel, which will take the state’s total production to 20 million tonnes.

The secretary visited Mecon and Research and Development Centre for Iron and Steel, and held discussions with senior officials of these two organisations.

SAIL MoU

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) will sign a MoU with the state government soon to set up a 12-million tonne greenfield steel plant, reports our correspondent.

The decision was taken at a meeting between the Centre and state government here today.

The secretary of Union steel ministry R.S. Pandey and the senior government officials, including the chief secretary, M.K. Mandal, were present at the meeting.