State to submit report to MoEF on Posco before month-end

The Orissa government will submit its report to the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) on the issue of compliance with Forest Rights Act at the Posco site before the end of this month.

“We will definitely submit the report to the MoEF before the end of this month. The SC & ST department has already reviewed the report which is currently under the scrutiny of the state forest & environment department. The forest & environment will soon get the order of the state government and thereafter the report will be submitted to MoEF”, the state Chief Secretary B K Patnaik told reporters here.

In its order on the Posco project, the MoEF had held that final approval on diversion of forest land would be granted after the state government gave a categorical assurance to the ministry that at least one of the three conditions is not fulfilled in case of those claiming to be dependent on or cultivating land in the Posco project area.

These conditions include having permanently resided in the forest for 75 years prior to December 13, 2005, present dependence on forest or forest land for bona fide livelihood needs and having been in occupation of forest land before December 13, 2005. According to the order of the ministry, non-tribals who meet these conditions constitute Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs). The ministry in its order dated January 31 this year had imposed 28 conditions on the mega steel plant as well as captive power plant proposed near Paradip and 32 conditions for the captive port of the company to be set up at Jatadhari Muhan in Jagatsinghpur district.

Work on the Posco project had come to a grinding halt after the MoEF had issued a stop work order on August 5 last year. The Posco project needed 4004 acres in all out of which 2958 acres comprised forest land.It may be noted that on last Saturday, a high-level team consisting of Priyabrata Patnaik, chairman and managing director of Industrial Infrastructure Corporation of Orissa (Idco) and the state Director General of Police, Manmohan Praharaj on Saturday visited the Posco site to take sock of the ground level progress.

As many as 534 acres of land has been handed over to Posco and Idco will prepare an Action Plan for this allotted patch of land.