Steel secretary says Posco issue to be resolved in a month

A week after the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) asked the Orissa government to stop work on the Rs 54,000 crore project being developed by South Korean steel major Posco, the steel ministry has said it will intervene to save the project.

“The environment ministry has raised some issues. They will be resolved soon. We hope to take it up with the concerned ministry,” Virbhadra Singh, Union minister for steel, said on the sidelines of a press conference on Wednesday.

Last week, a panel set up by the MoEF, headed by National Advisory Council member N C Saxena, found that the project site for the Posco plant was inhabited by some ‘other traditional forest dwellers’. Though the Forest Rights Act requires all tribals to be rehabilitated (with their consent) before acquiring land for the project, the Orissa government deliberately withheld information regarding opposition of the locals for the land being acquired by the company and gave a green signal to the project against its own rules.

According to sources, after the MoEF came out with its order, Posco officials spoke to the steel ministry to intervene and save the project, which has been facing protests for the last three years from civil society groups and environment activists.

A Posco spokesperson, however, denied making any representation to the steel ministry. He said “the matter is between the Centre and the state government so it would be resolved by them. We have heard that another committee has been formed to survey the project site and we hope the issue would be resolved soon.”

Steel secretary Atul Chaturvedi said the issue would be resolved in a month’s time. “Posco issue would get resolved soon, may be in a month’s time.”

Posco had signed a memorandum of understanding with Orissa in June 2005 for a 12 mt steel plant to be built in three phases by 2016. Since then, the company has struggled to get about 4,000 acres of land, as the company management faced opposition from different quarters on the issue of displacement of locals.