Posco promises adequate compensation for project-hit

BHUBANESHWAR: Posco-India will address issues of people to be displaced from government land, give reasonable compensation to cultivators on encroached land and a fair price for the private land to be acquired for its 12MTPA steel plant in Paradeep.

In a statement here, the company’s India executive director Uma Ballav Pattnaik said all displaced families and even the landless labourers would be adequately compensated.

He was reacting to media reports that Posco-India was not considering the demands of the action committee and dubbed the allegation as “untrue”.

“We have already stated that besides complying with the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy of the state government, Posco-India will have its own R&R policy and nearly 25,000 people will be engaged in the construction of the mega steel plant, the biggest FDI in the country,” Pattnaik said.

He added that many more commercial activities would provide ample opportunities of employment and business to locals. The company has also decided to provide technical and skill upgradation training to the project-affected to enhance their employability, he said.

For computation of the exact R&R package, a socio-economic survey and demarcation of land is necessary, which the state government would carry out in the project area.
The Rs52,000-crore project, Pattnaik claimed, would not only change the socio-economic landscape of Jagatsinghpur district but also the whole of Orissa.