Coordination vital for sustainable CSR

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar: At a workshop on `Sustainable CSR Practices-Shared Ideas’ here on Friday, there was a consensus by speakers from the government, corporate houses and reputed civil society leaders for proper coordination between the three sectors for sustainability in CSR.While various corporate houses and industries are spending sizeable amount on CSR, there is a gap with regard to sustainability of the programs initiated under corporate social responsibility.The workshop organized by Centre for Environment and Education (CEE), Adani Foundation and Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL) jointly was aimed at bringing in ideas from various stakeholders about sustainable CSR practices.Advisor of Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd P.N.Roy Chowdhury and Regional Director of CEE, East, New Delhi Prabhojit Sodhi talked about the purpose of the workshop and invited speakers from all sectors to give their view points for the coordinated effort for sustainable CSR.Inaugurating the workshop, Director General and CEO of Indian Institute for Corporate Affairs (IICA) Bhaskar Chatterjee suggested that there should be a single platform for NGO, Corporate and Government to prepare guidelines on CSR functioning and decide development projects for the state.In his keynote address, the CEO of Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) Jagadananda informed that the process has already started for the formation of a Comprehensive Odisha Development Forum (CODF) which will work for formation of guidelines for corporate houses for designing their CSR Programs.Besides, the effort should be made through this forum to ensure proper utilization of the CSR funds and government funds for sustainable development.Niranjan Sahoo of Odisha State Pollution Control Board viewed that the gaps existing in policy formation and actual implementation in the field level.NGO and Civil Society should play a major role in influencing the policy on various developmental and welfare measures.PCCF and Chief Executive of Chilika Development Authority (CDA) Ajit Pattnaik chaired the panel discussions in which various representatives from the government, NGOs and Corporate houses including Director of Strategy and Sustainability CSR of Adani Group Sushma Oza and CEO of DPCL Subrat Tripathy spoke on different aspects of sustainability in CSR.