Posco-India MoU yet to be renewed

Bhubaneswar, Feb 3 (PTI) Though six months have passedsince its MoU with Orissa government for setting up a 12 mtpagreenfeild steel mill lapsed, Posco is yet to reply certainqueries made by the state government for its renewal, officialsources said today.

"Certain queries have been made to Posco-India. But itis yet to respond. Once it is received, there should be noproblem in renewing the MoU," Chief Secretary, B K Patnaiktold reporters here.

The MoU issue was raised in the wake of the Centreaccording conditional clearance to the Posco project onJanuary 31.

The tenure of the five-year MoU with the South Koreansteel major lapsed on June 21, 2010, official souces saidadding that the proposed project to set up a mega steel plantnear Paradip failed to make much headway.

"We will renew the MoU with Posco at appropriatetime," Steel and Mines Minister, Raghunath Mohanty said.

Sources said Posco-India was reluctatnt to accept anynew clause in the renewed MoU suggested by the stategovernment.

The state government which has decided to reserve jobsfor local people in all mega projects, wanted it to beincorporated in the fresh MoU with Posco-India, sources said.

According to new job reservation policy, allindustries setting up units in the state would provide atleast 90 per cent jobs in unskilled category to local peopleincluding the families affected by project and upto 60 percent jobs in semi-skilled category.

Similarly, 30 per cent of the jobs need to go to localpeople of the state in supervisor and managerial cadre.

However, senior executive posts could be filled from openmarket, the new policy said.

While other mega projects including Tata Steel andJindal have already accepted the state�s job reservationpolicy not yet notified till today, Posco-India was reluctantto accept it claiming that job reservation on geographicalbasis did not conform to the constitutional provisions ofIndia.

"However, we hope Posco-India will soon cooperate forrenewing the MoU," the minister said. PTI AAM SKN PR

PR