Hurdles in way of POSCO to be removed: PM

New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said hurdles in the way for the establishment of the POSCO steel project at Paradeep in Orissa would be removed.

In a high-level special meeting chaired by the Prime Minister to review progress of infrastructure projects in Orissa, Dr Singh said the Central Government would take all steps needed to promote development in Orissa.

The meeting reviewed implementation of road, railway, port, power, coal, steel, mining and forest land development projects.

Dr Singh assured Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik that procedural delays and inter-ministerial issues will be addressed and the State's interests protected.

The review meeting proved to be extremely fruitful and helped to identify problems with respect to various infrastructure projects.

The meeting fixed responsibility for taking next steps, time lines for taking decisions and implementing them and also directed the State Government and the respective Central Ministries to carry forward the discussions at the earliest.

The State Government assured the Central Government that issues pertaining to POSCO will be addressed to the satisfaction of all and that through persuasion of stake holders, the project will be taken forward.

The meeting was attended among others by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Principal Secretary to PM and twelve secretaries to Government of India from the concerned Ministries.

This is the second meeting that the Prime Minister has chaired with a state Chief Minister and with senior Central Government officials to review development projects in a State.

The Prime Minister had chaired a similar meeting on Jammu and Kashmir last year.

Dr Singh will be convening similar meetings with other State Governments to review the implementation of infrastructure projects and clear bureaucratic hurdles.

UNI