MANGALDAI, Oct 21 - As a part of Guwahati Refinery�s corporate social responsibility initiative, the latter has come forward to provide funds for construction of 20 school toilet blocks with drinking water facility and construction of a maternity ward in Garukhuti Mini Primary Health Centre under Sipajhar LAC.
In addition to these infrastructure development projects, the PSU under its CSR has also distributed two garbage disposal vans, one each for two civic bodies of the district, besides a few garbage bins involving a total fund of over Rs 73 lakh.
In this connection an inaugural function was organised by the Darrang district administration at the District Library auditorium at Mangaldai on Sunday afternoon where the MP (Lok Sabha) of Mangaldai Ramen Deka was present as the chief guest.
Addressing a gathering of several hundred people, including teachers, Government officials, students, mediapersons etc, MP Deka described how the northern part of the State, including Darrang was lagging behind in development and the PSUs were also ignoring these areas. He further stated that it is only because of the intervention of PM Modi following discussion with a delegation of a parliamentary committee, including himself, that IOCL has come forward to undertake CSR programmes in Darrang which had already been declared as an Aspirational District with special focus on its overall development .
�It is the outcome of the discussion of a few parliamentarian, including me, with the Prime Minister where development of aspirational districts through CSR programmes of the PSUs found place,� MP Deka said. He also hinted on bringing more such CSR programmes to Darrang and Udalguri from other PSUs operating in the State.
The function whose objectives were explained by the Deputy Commissioner of Darrang Ashok Kumar Barman, was addressed by Jogen Barpujari, Executive Director of Guwahati Refinery, MLAs from Mangaldai and Sipajhar Gurujyoti Das and Binanda Kumar Saikia respectively, Chairman of Mangaldai Municipal Board Pratap Bordoloi and ADC Narnarayan Nath, among others.
In this regard an MoU between the said PSU and Darrang district administration was signed . Later, chief guest Ramen Deka handed over the keys of the vans to the chairpersons of Mangaldai Municipal Board and Kharupetia Town Committee.
Earlier, Darrang district failed to get significant support from any Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), including Indian Oil Corporation(IOC) Ltd under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme over the years, reportedly on the ground of distance jurisdiction. But at long last, Darrang district managed to draw some attention of IOC following the Central Government�s instructions. This instruction came after Darrang along with six other districts of the State were declared as Aspirational District which needed support for infrastructural development, especially in the health, education, drinking water and sanitation sectors.
