The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
JHARSUGUDA, JULY 1, 2021
The Jharsuguda Unit of Vedanta Limited organised COVID vaccination camps at Maa Samaleshwari Nagar and a school for specially-abled children here, vaccinating over 200 people in the process.
This month, Vedanta also conducted a mega vaccination camp across its operations, under the Vedanta Cares COVID Vaccination Drive to cover all employees, business partners and their families. At Jharsuguda operations alone, more than 14,500 people have been vaccinated till date.
Speaking on the occasion, CN Singh, CEO – Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda, said, “At Vedanta, the wellbeing of all our employees, business partners and their families is of paramount importance…We have vaccinated more than 14,500 people at our operations, and in the community, alleviating burden on the state’s resources. At the same time, we are also working closely with the Jharsuguda District Administration and providing them needful support towards keeping the local citizenry safe and sound.”
Kabita Rohidas, a resident of Maa Samaleshwari Nagar and family member of Vedanta employee Gautam Rohidas, appreciated the company’s support saying, “I am very thankful to Vedanta for setting up the vaccination camp and providing us with our first doses. With such an initiative, I am confident that everyone will be protected against the novel coronavirus.”
Vedanta has rolled out several initiatives in Jharsuguda at the grassroots to ensure greater preparedness against COVID. To aid the district administration in combating the ongoing second COVID wave, Vedanta has supported the District COVID Hospital in Jharsuguda with 20 ICU beds, 20 ventilators, 200 oxygen flow meters and 2000 N95 masks. It has also installed a diesel generator (DG) set at the hospital to ensure uninterrupted power supply and provided a 24×7 ambulance with healthcare workers for logistics support. Vedanta’s support comes at a crucial time to the district administration as they relentlessly battle the pandemic to safeguard the people of Jharsuguda.
Last year, the company had helped set up the District COVID Hospital, by providing infrastructure and medical equipment such as beds and ICUs, ventilators, PPE and corona kits, oxygen cylinders and concentrators, medicines, and other essential supplies. Vedanta distributed over 1.6 lakh masks to the community and frontline workers. More than 3300 ration kits were distributed to daily wage earners, slum dwellers and under-served families. Extensive awareness sessions on COVID were conducted across remote villages, and sanitization and disinfection activities were carried out in peripheral villages, public spaces, government offices, etc.
Vedanta’s social interventions in the domains of quality education sustainable livelihood, women empowerment, health, water and sanitation, bio-investment and community infrastructure reach out to a total of 72 villages in Jharsuguda and nearby areas, benefiting nearly 80,000 people in a year. It empowers more than 4000 women from over 339 SHGs, provides doorstep healthcare services to about 32,000 people annually, gives educational support to more than 6400 students, has planted more than 1.48 lakh trees in partnership with the community, and built 575 plus infrastructural projects at community level.
Vedanta is India’s largest producer of the green metal, aluminium, operating a world-class 1.6 MTPA aluminium smelter and 3615 MW thermal power generation facility in Jharsuguda, Odisha. The only Indian smelter in the global ‘1 Million Tonne’ production and export club, Vedanta Jharsuguda is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications across core industries. With one of the largest technically qualified and diverse workforces in the country, the company is working towards a sustainable and greener future for all by spurring emerging applications of aluminium, the ‘Metal of the Future’
