Tata Steel is in talks with Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) to undertake a community development project, worth Rs 21.5 crore, for 15 years to rehabilitate people who will be displaced by a greenfield project in Jharkhand.

The company’s proposed 12-metric-tonne-per-annum greenfield steel plant in Seraikela, Jharkhand, will displace about 3,100 families settled across 10,600 acres. The project area covers 25 villages.

A six-month pilot project will start from December, for which Tata Steel has sanctioned Rs 12 lakh to form field groups and for networking with local NGOs.

The company is planning an “extensive resettlement and rehabilitation programme”, which will include steps to improve the economic condition of the people to be affected by the project.

The steel plant will affect an estimated 16,229 people, 25 per cent of them belonging to the SC/ST/OBC category and 90 per cent to the economically weaker section.

“We have been running a Technical Training Centre on our own in Seraikela since November 2006. Youth from Seraikela and Gamharia blocks are being trained there and 13 have been employed in West Asia,” said a Tata Steel official.

In addition to this, as part of their corporate social responsibility, the Tatas are considering a collaboration with the School of Community Science and Technology (Socsat) of Besu, which will undertake a study and suggest rehabilitation programmes following an “active interface” with the local residents.

“We assist in improving the quality of life of the residents of the areas where we operate with the objective of making them self-reliant,” he said.

Socsat has undertaken a number of projects in rural Bengal, including installing arsenic-free water filters and training self-help groups and marginalised artisans in production-enhancement skills.

Socsat director N.R. Bandopadhyay said: “A rehab project will be successful only when the affected community is sensitised to the cause of development and the positive fallout of the project on their lives.”

For this, he added, participatory planning and action in the process of development are necessary. Keeping this in mind, Socsat wants to join hands with local NGOs and other community development groups in the area and undertake a survey to identify the skills, marketing network and source of inputs to develop sustainable livelihoods.