Samidha Mittal (left) and Sandeep Kumar Verma, students of SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, March 31: The state government’s rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy proposal — to make land donors the share-holders in various industries to be set up in Jharkhand — is not practical, admitted two management students of SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai.

The students further added that the compensation amount to be given to the land donors should include inflation rate of the coming five years.

“As the literacy level among villagers, from whom land would be acquired, is low, the proposal of the government to make them share-holders in industries may not succeed in the long run,” said Samidha Mittal, a second-year student of the management institute, who is here for a project.

Sandeep Kumar Verma, her classmate and companion in the study tour, concurred.

The duo are in the capital for a short-term study tour in association with Citizens’ Foundation, an NGO.

Their study tour would involve studying the rehabilitation and resettlement policy of the Jharkhand government.

For their task, they would be meeting bosses of industrial houses as well as government officials to get their reaction over the proposed policy.

That over, they would be studying the welfare work being carried out as a part of corporate social responsibility by various business houses in Jharkhand.

The two have already spoken with officials of Abhijeet Group of Industries and plan to call on Jindal Steel, Bhushan Steel and ArcelorMittal among other groups, active in Jharkhand, next. Mittal and Verman also plan to submit a copy of their study report to the Jharkhand government after completing the task.

The state government has already prepared a draft of the rehabilitation and resettlement policy, in which it proposes to make land donors share-holders in the industry.

The draft, however, has to be discussed by a special committee of ministers before it is sent to the state cabinet for final approval.

Both Mittal and Verma, whose parents hail from Ranchi and who have ancestral residences here, are engineers by degree.

Before this, Mittal has worked as a technical executive with Brahmos Aerospace Private Limited (ministry of defence) for three years.

Verma was a manager with the Tatas for two years before taking up the management course with the premier institute.

Speaking to The Telegraph today, Verma said the Jharkhand government should involve two management institutes — XLRI, Jamshedpur, and Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi, in the process of rehabilitation and resettlement policy formation.

The other social aspect that seemed to have left an impact on Verma was the issue of corporate social responsibility. Though lauding their efforts, he added that corporate houses functioning here were carrying out welfare schemes according to their “intuition”.

Instead, he added, they should take into consideration the genuine needs of the local people. “Before implementing the schemes, they should find out the needs of the people first. Then do the welfare work,” he added.

The two students would be in the state for the next 20-25 days.