Odisha sets terms to lease land to Posco

Steel major asked to deposit land premium, NPV

The state government has stipulated two conditions to lease out additional 1088.59 acres of land to Posco India for building an eight million tonne steel plant near Paradip.

Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), the state's nodal agency for land acquisition and industrial infrastructure development, has reiterated its demand for payment of land premium still pending with Posco India.

Posco India needed to pay land premium of Rs  54.22 crore to Idco.

For the revised eight mtpa steel plant, Posco India required 2700 acres of land, out of which 1703.56 acres are in the stage of advance possession and lease has already been handed over to the company.

Though Idco has approved handover of the balance 1088.59 acres of land, the same is yet to be leased out to the steel maker.

Besides, for the de-reserved forest land, NPV (net present value) amounting to Rs 18.79 crore is to be deposited by Posco India. NPV is the amount the user agencies need to deposit as per the Supreme Court order in 2002 for diversion of forest land for non-forest usage. It includes the cost of the land along with tangible and intangible benefits of the forest area and is charged at Rs 5.8 lakh to Rs 9.2 lakh per hectare depending on the type and density of the diverted forest land.

“Several reminders were issued to Posco India to deposit the sanctioned amount but the company has not deposited till now”, Idco's land officer wrote to P K Dash, joint secretary, industries (Odisha).

After the Union ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) granted the Stage-II approval for forest clearance to Posco steel project in December 2009, land procurement work started on July 25, 2010. Compensation was paid to owners of betel vines, prawn hatcheries and fruit bearing trees as per the decision of the Rehabilitation & Periphery Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC).

Till date, 1118 betel vines have been demolished in five villages- Nuagaon, Polanga, Bayanalakanda, Gobindpur and Noliasahi.

A compensation of Rs 24.40 crore was distributed among the villagers towards cost of uprooting of 1118 betel vines, two prawn ponds and horticulture trees spread over the de-reserved government land.

On August 5 2010, the MoEF directed the state government to stop land procurement work of Posco India but again re-accorded final approval of Stage-II on May 4, 2011. Thereafter, land procurement work again resumed on December 26, 2012 and was completed in June 2013.

Idco has executed lease deed for 558.51 acres of non-forest land acquired in seven villages- Dhinkia, Gobindpur, Nuagaon, Bhuyanpal, Polanga, Bayanalkanda and Noliasahi. Possession of 401.98 acres has been handed over to Posco India. The balance land is in Gobindpur and Dhinkia and is to be handed over by the Jagatsinhgpur collector.

The state government has decided against acquisition of private land for the Posco project.

Even after re-validation of green clearance in January this year, work on the boundary wall for the Posco project has come to a standstill due to protests by agitating villagers.'

The key demands of the agitating villagers are job for one member of each of the affected families, increase in land price from Rs  17 lakh to Rs  25 lakh per acre, 30 per cent increase in compensation for betel crop as decided at the last RPDAC meeting in 2010, re-measurement of betel vines and compensation to the growers as per 2008 socio-economic survey, construction of colony for displaced families and hike in the rate of subsistence allowance fromRs 2250 to 4500 for the betel vine labourers.