The Neyveli Lignite Corporation, a Navratna public sector undertaking, has done a hat-trick by bagging three national awards instituted by the Public Relations Society of India (PRSI).
Among the Maharatna and Navratna companies that vied for the honours, the NLC has been adjudged as the best in the country in two aspects — in terms of implementation of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Right to Information Act — and the second best in the e-newsletter category.
A statement from the NLC stated that the awards were given away at the 36th All India Public Relations Conference with the theme “Sab ka South: Sab ka Vikas — Inclusive growth — Marching Together — Role of Public Relations” organised by the PRSI at Jaipur recently.
Speaker of the Rajasthan Assembly Kailash Meghwal inaugurated the meeting in which Gulab Kothari, Chief Editor of the Rajasthan Patrika Group, was the guest of honour. The awards were received by NLC Central PIO E. Srinivasan.
NLC Chairman-cum-Managing Director B.Surender Mohan today felicitated the team of officials in the Public Relations Department on Monday.
The statement further noted that as far as the CSR activities were concerned, the NLC, ever since its inception in 1957, had been striving for improving the health, education, basic amenities and sanitation parameters in the peripheral villages, imparting vocational skills among the villagers and speedy settlement of compensation disputes to achieve the goals of inclusive growth.
Towards this end the NLC had been making annual allocation for the CSR: for instance, for the financial year 2013-2014 it had earmarked 2 per cent of its profit after tax, amounting to Rs 26.30 crore, toward the CSR.
Regarding the implementation of the Right to Information Act, the NLC was one among the pioneers to implement it in July 2005 itself, soon after the legislation was passed. It had constituted a RTA Cell consisting of one Central Public Information Officer, two Appellate Officers and 17 Central Assistant Public Information Officers to attend to the queries and appeals.
Of the 324 applications with a total number of 1,636 queries received during 2013-2014 the Cell had cleared 285 applications with 1,432 queries. The NLC e-newsletter had been rated as the second best in the country.
The jury consisting of Wajahat Habibullah, former Chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities and former Chief Information Commissioner, S.K.Chaturvedi, Chairman, Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission, State of Goa and Union Territories,and five other eminent personalities.
The NLC sources said that the awards would further motivate the NLC to improve upon its performance with greater commitment and determination.