Jamshedpur, July 20: There’s good news for families which were displaced when the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) started the Turamdih mines project at Jadugoda in 1990.
UCIL has decided to employ displaced youths of Turamdih as technical apprentices. It has also reserved job posts for them.
UCIL sources said the decision was taken at a recent management at Jadugoda.
The company will soon issue a notice inviting candidates to apply for posts like lab assistant, mechanical maintenance, attendant operator and mate (mining). Candidates should have at least passed matriculation or plus-two and should not be over 22 years of age, UCIL sources said. Over 80 families were affected when the Turamdih mines project started in the early 1990’s. Since then the displaced have been running from pillar to post demanding compensation and rehabilitation. Only a few of the families were compensated.
A senior UCIL official, S.K. Das said that last year a decision was taken to employ displaced youths for unskilled work. Some people had been absorbed in the group D category. “But for the first time displaced people will be employed in technical posts,” he said, adding that the company is focussing on providing employment to local youths.
According to Das, displaced youngsters would get priority in technical jobs offered by the company. “We are trying to identify those among the displaced who have attained some technical training so that they can be absorbed in the company,” he said. UCIL sources that 10 out of 15 posts for attendant operators have been reserved for the displaced, while three seats each have been reserved for mechanical maintenance and material (mining) posts and one seat for lab assistant in the company’s chemical plant.
Selected candidates will be sent for a two-year training at UCIL’s Hooghly-based Basic Training Centre. They will receive a stipend of Rs 1,000.