400 Selected Participants of ‘Clean Balco Competition’ Honoured

IndiaCSR News Network

BALCONAGAR: The country wide programme ‘Swach Bharat Abhiyan’ has been closely adopted by Balco Management  in the name and style of ‘Swach Balco  Abhiyan’  on a large scale. Under its cleanliness plan, Balco had kept a ‘Clean Balco Competition’ in the month of Oct’14.  The selected 400 odd participants were honoured during a spectacular cultural programme held at the Dr. Ambedkar Stadium, Balconagar. 29 students who have been selected by prestigious Engineering Institutions, pan India were presented with ‘Utkarsh Scholarships.

Korba was known for Balco :  A mega cultural entertainment organised from 6 PM on the 11th Dec’14  at the Dr. Ambedkar Stadium, Balconagar, spanning nearly six hours kept the audience spell bound, applauding for more and more. An audience of nearly 3000 people thronged the venue to cheer the ‘Cleanliness Ambassadors’ and the talented engineering students. Mr. O. C. Kapila, Executive Director, Chhattisgarh State Electricity Production Company, speaking as a Guest of Honour at the function  praised the programme for its wonderful management . He congratulated Balco Management for the wonderful programme and also gave his good wishes to Balco. He whole heartedly praised the Community Development Programmes of Balco in the areas of education, health, self-sustenance etc.

In connection with the Cleanliness Initiative, he said that no initiative of such a dimension is an easy task but when people unite together to implement the same, it becomes easy. Mr Kapila shared his memories of yester years and unleashed a wave of joy as he mentioned that there was a time when Korba was known because of Balco. Balco has earned itself a special place in the Indian Industrial horizon because of its focus on development tasks. He congratulated Balco family on the occasion of its Golden Jubilee Year and gave his best wishes for a progressive future.

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Let’s take an oath, that we will not use plastic packagings : Mr. Avdesh Trivedi, A.R.M, South Eastern Railways, Korba  gracing the programme as a guest of honour  appealed to all  present in the grand function to take an oath that of refraining from the use of plastic packaging. There are no doubt hardships in the journey of realising oaths but  it is only an indomitable spirit that helps us reach our destination. Sharing an anecdote from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mr Trivedi said that once upon a time, the shore of one particular island  was littered with plastic bottles and plastic packaging.

It was a pathetic scene. However, some youngsters vowed to make the shore plastic free and their herculean efforts have been rewarded today.Today the shore is a beautiful site to visit. He also added that Indian culture and various religions of the World give special importance to cleanliness. He also harped on the religious contention which promulgates the importance of  outer cleanliness along with the importance  of  staying clean within oneself .Mr. Trivedi congratulated Balco Management  for the outstanding programme.

Every Balconian is deeply involved with the cleanliness initiative.: Mr. Ramesh Nair, CEO and Whole Time Director, Balco expressed his happiness over the deep passionate involvement of every member of Balco family in the cleanliness initiative. He said that the country wide cleanliness programme is nearly six months old but the cleanliness initiative in Balco was started nearly one and a half year before. Mr. Nair praised the efforts of the ‘Cleanliness Ambassadors’ hailing from a number of  social, cultural, educational, sports and religious organisations for promoting a resurgent drive towards cleanliness in Balco Township. Mr. Nair shared that Balco Township is the first Township in Korba region where contaminated water is not released into drains and rivers. The contaminated water is put to use only after proper treatment in an ultramodern waste water treatment plant.

Proper attention is being given to the maintenance of parks and gardens in the Township. Every house now has a waste collection system which is harnessing the wastage from spilling into the township. Mr. Nair, praised the students who were selected for the ‘Utkarsh Scholarship’. He expressed his happiness that the Nation was making all round progress and  he also appealed to the selected students to work hard to take the Nation to even greater heights.

It’s a matter of pride to be a part of Balco Family : Mr. Sumer Dalmia, President, Balco Chamber of Commerce expressed that it was a matter of pride to be an integral  part of Balco Family. He said that Balco Family has been involved in the cleanliness programme for considerable time now. He said that women customers coming to his store are out of sheer personal choice, refraining from using plastic packaging. He was hopeful that with everybody’s effort we could make Balco Township absolutely ‘plastic free’.

Lot of programmes will be organised during the Golden Jubilee Year: Mr. B.K.Sriwastwa, Head, Community Relations, Balco said that a lot of interesting programmes will be organised all around the Golden Jubilee Year. He shared that ‘Anand Mela , a Food Festival, Cleanliness Programme, Water Conservation Programme, Plastic Free Initiatives etc  will keep the residents involved towards making the Golden Jubilee Year memorable in every way. He said that under the able leadership and guidance of Mr. Ramesh Nair, CEO, Balco a new synergetic drive towards cleanliness has been fuelled. Every work in the Plant and in the Township is getting special attention towards cleanliness and safety. On this occasion, Col. D. S. Bhati, GM-Adminstration, Balco, Mr. S. N. Singh, GM- Adminstration, Balco, Mrs Meena Mantri, President, Balco Mahila Mandal, Mrs Vineeta Rai, Office Bearer, Balco Mahila Mandal,Mr. Vivek Sharma, Town Inspector, Police Station,Balconagar, Mr. Kailash Sharma, Principal, Delhi Public School, Balconagar, Mr. Shiv Agarwal, Secretary, Balco Chamber of Commerce and a number of distinguished guests were present.

Students who received the ‘Utkarsh Scholarship’:  Balco has awarded 29 students with the scholarship for the Educational Year 2014-15. The students are Divyansh Kumar Chandrakar, Amit Kumar Chandravanshi, Ankush Bansal, Amit Kumar Bhagat, Utsav Goyal, Divyaraj Meshram, Vikas Singh Rajput, Gaurav Agarwal, Jagriti Bajpai, Rishabh Sriwas, Rupesh Pawar,Padumlala Ratre, Aman Varma, Shiv Dayal, Dipansh Jain, Prakhar Pincha, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Kurrey, Sandeep Patel, Jaya Sahu, Kiran, Tarun  Kumar Chandra, Shashank Dubey, Radhik Patel, Neelam Rathore, Paresh Rawat, Shivam Mishra, Nikhil Kumar Paliwal, and Binu Devangan.

Mr. Ashish Ranjan, AGM, Community Relations, said that the applicants who had met all the essential criteria set for the Scholarship had been awarded the same. Under the plan, every student received  Rs 30,000/-. These students were selected from I.I.T, N.I.T, B.I.T and from Government Engineering Colleges. Most of the parents of the students were farmers, running small private businesses, labourers etc.

A variety programme kept the audience mesmerised: The cultural programme started  with an inspirational song sung by students of Delhi Public School. This was followed by performances by Bal Sadan Higher Secondary School, Mini Mata Higher Secondary School,M.G.M. Higher Secondary School and Delhi Public School. The audience was thrilled by the musical and dance performances based on the themes of Sua, Karma and Diwali presented by the Schools.

This was followed by wonderful solo presentations by Mr.Om Yadav,Dr. Satdal Nath, Mrs. Maushami Saha Sharma, and Mr. Nitin Tiwari.  The students of Divya Jyoti Blind School showed tremendous entertaining abilities and also received the loudest applause from the audience. The programme also had a dosage of laughter as Mr. Kaushal Sahu and  Mr. Anuj Sriwastav successfully tickled everybody’s funny bone by their outstanding mimicry and humour. They cleverly imitated politicians of the State and on the National scene, famous religious gurus and also caught everybody’s attention by producing various sounds of instruments in between their variety performance.

Large number of people witness Community Development Stall.: The CSR Wing of Balco had displayed the different Trades of the Vedanta  I.L.& F.S. School, Balconagar and the work of self-service groups. This was done in several stalls put up on the occasion. Along with this an attractive  photo exhibition also attracted the crowds who poured in to witness the golden journey of Balco over the last 50 years.

The Guests had at the start of the function offered prayers by lighting a lamp in front of Lord Natraj. Mr. Ramesh Nair also unfurled the Golden Jubilee Flag to mark the occasion. The October 2014 Edition of Balco’s inhouse magazine- ‘Balco Manch’ was released by the distinguished guests amidst loud clapping from the audience. Mr. Nair presented momentos on behalf of Balco Family to Mr. Kapila, Mr. Trivedi and Mr. Dalmia so that they could carry with them sweet memories of the occasion.

The programme  was nicely compered by Mr. Vyas Narayan Singh, Senior Office Bearer of INTUC and Mrs Archana Trivedi, Secretary, Balco Mahila Mandal. The ‘Vote of Thanks’ was presented by Mr. Vinod Nair, Head-Township, Balco.

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