Posco land acquisition continuing peacefully in Odisha

The district collector and superintendent of police denied this and said villagers were cooperating and no force was used.

CPI leader and local MP Bibhu Prasad Tarai, who joined the demonstrators alleged that the exercise was illegal in the absence of a Memorandum of Understanding for the project.

As the MoU with the South Korean company lapsed in June 2010 and no fresh pact was signed with the steel major, the government must refrain from undertaking any project-related activities, he claimed.

The land acquisition drive for the $12 billion steel mill has raised raising hopes that South Korean steelmaker could accelerate a project pending since 2005.

POSCO's Odisha project, touted as India's biggest single foreign direct investment (FDI), has run into major delays mainly due to environmental concerns and opposition from farmers over land acquisition, hurting the image of Asia's third-largest economy as an investor-friendly destination.

POSCO, which is backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett and is the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker by output, signed a pact with the state government in 2005 for the 12 million tonnes-per-annum plant on 4,000 acres of land.

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