'Centre reneging on international commitment on Posco'

A day after Union Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said Posco would have to participate in bidding to obtain mines, the Odisha government Friday termed it as "going back from international commitment".

The state government has decided to ask the centre to allocate the Khandadhar mines to Posco.

"The Centre should honour its commitment made to the company. While the present prime minister and the previous prime minister have assured the company and the South Korean leaders to support the steel project, it can't go back from the commitment," state Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Mallick told reporters here.

He said the state government recommended giving the Khandadhar mines to the South Korean company much before the ordinance on MMDR amendment.

"We have already voiced our concern before the mines minister. He had also assured us to look into the matter. We want the central government to accept our recommendation and respect its and our international commitment," Mallick said.

Tomar had Thursday said that Posco will have to participate in the bidding process to get mines to run its proposed $ 12 billion steel plant at Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district.

The Posco project is touted as the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country. However, the project is yet to see the light of day following protests by local groups and various legal hurdles.

The company had signed an MoU with the state government in 2005.

With the state government blaming the Centre, the Odisha BJP hit out at the government saying that the ordinance would help to garner more revenue for the state.

"The government is yet to renew the MoU signed with the company. It has also failed to acquire land to set up the project. The state government is trying to shift the blame to the Centre only to hide its inefficiency," said party leader K.V. Singhdeo.