Orissa to restart land acquisition for Posco soon

A day after the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) granted Stage-II forest clearance for the Rs 54,000-crore Posco project in Orissa, the state government has decided to swing to action on the land acquisition front.

The state government aims to restart land acquisition work soon for the project, which was stopped on August 6 last year following a MoEF order.

“We will shortly talk to the Jagatsinghpur district administration on restarting land acquisition for the Posco project. At first, we need to work on conversion of forest land”, state Chief Secretary B K Patnaik told reporters here.

Priyabrata Pattnaik, chairman and managing director (CMD), Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (Idco) said, “We don't see any major obstacle to the land acquisition work. Our next course of action is to initiate talks with the Jagatsinghpur district collector and once we get the government nod, we can start acquiring land for the project. We are hopeful to complete the process within a month”.

He said that 585 acres of non-forest government land has already been alloted to Posco India though the company is yet to take possession of it.

“We have also paid compensation of Rs 1.36 crore to 94 people who had raised betel vines at the Posco site. We have been able to clear 400 acres of forest land needed for the project”, he added.

According to Patnaik, there are around 1800 betel vines at the project site and of the 1253 hectares (3096.22 acres) of forest land needed for the project, 100-150 acres are in possession of the locals.

The Idco CMD maintained that there is a government order to exclude 284 acres of private land at Dhinkia but if the locals were willing to surrender their land for the project, the government may consider their demand.

Following exclusion of 242 families at Dhinkia, he said, there are around 600 families who would be losing land for the project.

On compensatory afforestation work to be taken by Posco India, Patnaik said that the state government had identified the Athagarh-Narasinghpur stretch and a region in Jagatsinghpur district for the purpose.

Meanwhile, the state government has stated that it would examine the recommendation of the MoEF on the issue of iron ore exports by Posco.

“We would examine the suggestion of the MoEF on the issue of iron ore exports by Posco India. We will renew the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the company soon”, said Raghunath Mohanty, minister for industries and steel & mines.

While granting Stage-II forest clearance for the Posco project yesterday, Union minister for environment and forest, Jairam ramesh had suggested that the revised MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the state government and Posco India needs to be negotiated in a manner that the exports of the raw material are completely avoided.