Posco may forsake claim on 200 acres in Orissa

The company requires a total of 5525 acres of land,of which 4004.19 acres is needed for the project site and the remaining for the township at Paradeep. Of the total land,437.66 acres is private land. Interestingly,though the government has transferred the lease deed for 506.74 acres of land to the utility,it is yet to commence any work on it. Posco is battling stiff resistance from the Left-backed Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity comprising residents of these three villages within its project site. Recently,Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik too had announced his government’s intention on telling the South Korean behemoth to forego its right over the said land.

In a recent meeting at Udyog Bhawan,Steel Secretary Atul Chaturvedi had told the Posco top brass that the inordinate delay in commencing the project was triggering concerns and “the company should proceed with whatever land it has at its disposal.” Asking the South Korean behemoth to re-orient its land acquisition policy,Chaturvedi reasoned,“Posco should understand the situation and take steps accordingly. There needs to be a delicate balance between meeting the welfare of the tribals and meeting land requirement,” he told this newspaper.

The project has been mired in controversy from the day Posco inked the MoU with Orissa for setting up the plant in 2005. Apart from facing hostile protests from local gram panchayats over its land acquisition efforts,there have been occasions when the agitating locals against have reportedly prevented its officials from visiting the site. Even though the union ministry of environment and forests has accorded forest clearances in two stages to Posco,the state government would have to settle the forest dwellers before handing over the forest area to the company.