Defunct iron factory linked to Dalai Lama sees renewed hope of resurrection every election season
Dalai Lama — a man who has no worldly possessions and has eschewed wealth — once owned a factory in a small Indian town, that produced iron. But now, it only produces longing for the people of Hirodih, a small village outside the town of Koderma, in Jharkhand.
At the entrance of Hirodih stands Gayday Iron & Steel Company, now corroded and abandoned, was once owned by the Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Prize winner. Spanning 350 acres, the plant was set up by the Dalai Lama in the 1960s after he acquired the land from the villagers for Rs 4 crore.
Once a major avenue for employment in the region, the factory has been shut for the better part of four decades now. Despite this, the people of the region hold out hope that it will be returned to its former glory.
These hopes are fuelled every election cycle, with promises forgotten every results day while administrative apathy pushes the people of Koderma out of the region.
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One of the first employees of the factory, Jung Bahadur Singh, now in his 70s spoke to
