MoEF team to visit Posco area on Friday

A fact-finding team set up by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) will visit the Posco project site in Jagatsinghpur district for two days on 27th and 28th August to review the allegation of violation of Forest Rights Act.

The team is led by former Union tribal affairs secretary, Meena Gupta. The other members of the team include Uma Pingle, V Suresh, a human rights advocate and Devendra Pandey, an IFS officer. The team has been asked to submit their report within one month.

This will be the second Central team to visit the Posco site in last one month to look into allegations of Forest Rights Act violation by the authorities there. The members of National Forest Rights Committee, jointly set up by MoEF and Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, had visited the site on July 24.

The committee, in its report, had accused the state government of violating the provisions of FRA by declining to honour the claims of Other Traditional Forest Dwellers who have been dependent on the forest land earmarked for the project for generations. It had suggested that no forest land should be handed over to Posco before the settlement of the rights of Other Traditional Forest Dwellers.

Subsequently, on the basis of the recommendations of the panel, MoEF had asked the state to stop land acquisition at the site. Complying with the missive, the state government had halted the land acquisition for the project, started from July 27, on August 6.

According to sources, Meena Gupta team will arrive at Jagatsinghpur on 27 August and interact with district officials about violation of FRA and look into issues like land acquisition and demolition of betel vines in the Posco site. On August 28, the team will visit project-hit panchayats, Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadkujang and interact with villagers to know about violation of FRA provisions.

Meanwhile, district collector Narayan Chandra Jena has conducted preparatory meeting with district officials, including revenue officials and forest officials ahead of the team’s visit. He has asked all concerned officials to be present and made elaborate arrangements for an incident free tour of the team.

As the fate of Posco project is dependent on this fact finding team, so the district administration and anti and pro Posco outfits are busy preparing their strategies to convince the team about their respective view points.