Bhubaneswar, July 19: The inter-ministerial committee has submitted its report to the state government, recommending formulation of a policy for providing raw materials exclusively to local manufacturing units.

The report was submitted a day after ArcelorMittal’s announcement about the withdrawal of its Odisha project.

Sources said the group withdrew after not getting adequate support for land acquisition and the government’s non-committal attitude on providing raw materials for its proposed 12-million-tonne steel project in Keonjhar district.

Sources said the committee had accepted a proposal that the mine owners, who had no industries, would have to sell 50 per cent of their production to local industrial units.

In its 100-page report, the panel has suggested to the government to chalk out a plan to provide raw materials exclusively to the local units. The state government will take a formal decision on this, a source said.

After local industries had complained about the lack of raw materials, the state government formed the panel last November to suggest measures to address this problem. The committee is consisted of finance minister Prasanna Acharya, industries minister Niranjan Pujari and steel and mines minister Rajanikant Singh.

Co-chairman of Utkal Chamber of Commerce Prabhakar Rout said: “The ongoing industrialisation seems to be losing steam because the state government has failed to provide raw materials to the industries.”

Rout said the state-run Odisha Mining Corporation should expand its activities and try to provide raw materials to the local units. Apart from local industries, Vedanta Alumina is also complaining about lack of support from the government in getting raw materials. Small-scale industries have been echoing similar feelings.

All-Odisha Steel Federation president P.L. Kandoi said: “Since we have already invested a huge amount of money in setting up industrial units, we cannot leave like ArcelorMittal did. The government has failed to provide a conducive atmosphere for the development of industries. The state government is yet to come out with any concrete measures to bail us out.”

“The committee should have placed the report in public domain for scrutiny. We are not expecting much from the report. Most of the industries are in a state of coma,” he said.

The state government has inked 93 MoUs with big industrial houses in the fields of steel, aluminium and cement. Of these, only 34 have started partial production. “Besides land acquisition, raw material shortage has hit the industrialisation process in the state,” said the industries minister.