Orissa govt sanctions land for POSCO Plant at Paradip

Bhubaneswar, June 21 (UNI) A year after signing the MoU, the Orissa government today sanctioned 1135 acres of land in favour of the South Korea Steel major POSCO to set up its 12 million tonne steel plant in Paradip.

The Jagatsinghpur district administration was asked to sanction the land to POSCO which required at least 4000 acre of land to set up the mega plant at an estimated cost of Rs.52,000 crore, the largest FDI in the country.

A high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today reviewed the progress of the POSCO project and constituted a Rehabilitation and Periphery Development Advisory Committee to be headed by the Revenue Divisional Commissioner(central division) to look into the displacement issue.

This apart two Rehabilitation and Resettlement Officers, a Zone officer, and a Nodal Officer were appointed to carry out necessary work for the proposed steel plant.

A notification under 4(1) of the Orissa land Acquisition Act was issued to acquire private land from the villagers likely to be affected in the project and the departments concerned were asked to expedite the work for land acquisition.

Meanwhile, former Panchayat Raj Minister and ruling Biju Janata Dal Secretary General Damodar Rout, who organised a big rally at the proposed steel plant site in favour of the steel plant, indicated that POSCO would go ahead with the plant on the government land if the people refused to hand over their land.

He said out of 4000 acre of land only 440 acre belonged to the private land, adding that the government would seriously consider excluding this land for the project incase there would be any resistance from the local people.

Mr Rout claimed that there was a bigger conspiracy not to allow the POSCO Steel plant in the area. While a majority of people had welcomed the project, a handful of villagers with the support of local police and revenue officials were protesting against the POSCO project, the BJD leader said.

He said the people must understand that the area would witness a major economic development with the POSCO project. Even the Centre has sanctioned Rs 3500 crore to undertake various infrastructure development work which would change the total scenario of the area.

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