With the fate of the Rs52,000 crore Posco project hanging in balance over Forest Rights Act, people of 7 villages from the proposed site today asked Union environment minister to visit the plant site during his Orissa tour.
With the fate of the Rs52,000 crore Posco project hanging in balance over Forest Rights Act, people of seven villages from the proposed site today asked Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh to visit the plant site during his Orissa tour.
Hit by the "push and pull" on implementation of the project since the company signed the MoU with state government in 2005, people from both the anti and the pro-project camps said Ramesh should make an "on-the-spot" enquiry into the ground reality during his two-day visit from April 28.
"We will send a letter to Jairam Ramesh requesting him to personally visit the proposed plant site villages of Posco and verify implementation of FRA," United action committee president Anadi Charan Rout told PTI over phone.
While UAC supports the project, CPI backed Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) is strongly opposed to it.
"We will welcome Ramesh, if he visits Posco's plant site. Two central panels (Saxena and Gupta) earlier sent by Ramesh have vindicated our stand and observed that FRA is violated in the area," PPSS president Abhay Sahu said.
Though people at the proposed plant site villages were enthusiastic about Ramesh's Orissa visit, official sources said the Union minister had no programme to visit the area.
The minister will visit Tiger Reserve at Similipal and Bhitarkanika National Park during his two-day visit, a senior official at the forest department said.
Both the pro and anti project groups have made diverse claims over the implementation of FRA. While UAC supported the state government's claim that there was no tribal or any other traditional forest dwellers (OTFD), PPSS claimed otherwise.
"We have so far received 700 applications from villagers claiming rights over forest land. There are many OTFDs in the proposed plant site," said Dhinkia gram panchayat sarpanch Sisir Mohapatra, also secretary of PPSS.
UAC leader Rout said there was no OTFDs in proposed plant site villages according to FRA provision because the area was not categorised as forest land 75 years ago.
Stating that the area was categorised as forest land in 1961, he said FRA provisions clearly said that people living in forest areas for 75 years could be identified as OTFDs.
Meanwhile, state government had asked Jagatsinghpur district administration to verify PPSS claims that Palli Sabha resolutions were ignored by authorities.
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