Bhubaneswar: At a time when economic crisis has deepened amidst the deadly coronavirus, a West Bengal-based firm, in cahoots with Railway officials, has reportedly hit the financial backbone of poor people of Odisha who are depending on mining business.
As per an allegation made by a Bhubaneswar-based NGO, Joint Action Network of Mines Affected Territory (JANMAT), Rashmi Group has fraudulently acquired a majority of rakes bound to Dharma Port in Odisha. It has accused the group of creating various shell companies and using them to obtain most of the rakes for Dhamra Port in Bhadrak.
“The Indian Railways allocates rakes as per a Rapid Allocation System (RAS) wherein a company can place only three indents of the material at a time which belongs to them. However, Rashmi Group has managed to get most of the rakes by placing orders in the name of its shell companies,” alleged JANMAT secretary Bijay Mishra.
Due to congestion created by Rashmi Group at Dhamra, there is very low allocation of rakes from Joda, Koira and Barbil mining circles of Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts which is affecting livelihood of drivers, khalasis and others engaged in mineral transport activities driven by other metal and mining companies. The NGO further alleged that the pellet company of Rashmi Group has created over 60 shell companies and uses them to place multiple indents for railway rakes and is getting a majority of rakes for Dhamra port. Consignees of these indents are one or two companies of Rashmi Group, including Orissa Metaliks, Mishra said.
The NGO has submitted a memorandum to the member Traffic, Ministry of Railways in this regard. Indent position of Chakradharpur and Kharagpur divisions of SER shows that Orissa Metaliks Pvt Ltd was able to get 62 per cent of total rakes as a single consignee from different consignors who are shadow firms of Rashmi Group. Out of 86 rakes allotted since March 27, at least 53 have been allocated to Orissa Metaliks Pvt. Ltd while the remaining have been allocated to five others.
All the 292 indents are booked in the name of Orissa Metaliks in Kharagpur to Dhamra section of SER whereas Chakradharpur to Dhamra route, on which most of the mining companies in Odisha depend, gets only 20 per cent.
This adversely impacts the operation of many major metal and mining firms in Odisha and directly affects the livelihood of more than five lakh wage earners, the NGO claimed.
Earlier, the CBI had filed a case against the firm for causing revenue loss to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore to the Indian Railways by availing freight concessions on the pretext that iron ore was transported for domestic consumption, whereas it was exported.