In a bid to win over angry villagers at the proposed plant site area near Orissa's Paradip, Posco-India plans alternative engagement for landless people of the area, company sources said.
The Orissa government has said that it fully supports the multi-billion steel project from global steel maker Posco, despite opposition from local people.
The centre on Thursday said a memorandum of understanding with Korean steel major Posco and the Orissa government would be inked by the end of this month.
The Jagatsinghpur district administration, under whose jurisdiction the site falls, has decided to convene a meeting of the Rehabilitation and Periphery Development Advisory Committee next week to finalise land valuation, compensation and rehabilitation packages. Even after three years of signing of MoU with the state government, the Posco project was a non starter due to stiff opposition by the locals led by PPSS activists.
South Korean steel major Posco will start construction of its 12 million tonne, Rs 51,000-crore mega steel project near Paradip in Orissa on April 1, 2008.
The key demands include providing jobs to a member of each project affected family, changing the method of measurement of betel vines grown on the land and to now be uprooted, and raising compensation for homestead as well as agricultural land.
Seventeen others were arrested for opposing the land acquisition process.
The Orissa government's move to grant prospecting licence to South Korean steel major Posco for its proposed 12 million tonne steel plant in the state has hit a roadblock.
Posco India had entered into an MoU with the state government on June 22, 2005 and with the term of the agreement coming to end this month, it requires to be renewed.
Land acquisition for the Posco steel plant continued for the third day on in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district as anti-Posco as protestors took out a rally defying prohibitory orders carrying bodies of three activists.
Giving a patient hearing to woes of tribals in Jharsuguda in Orissa, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asserted that people affected by the Posco steel project must get justice, proper compensation and rehabilitation.
From setting up cutting-edge facilities to cater to the domestic market and building capabilities of global standards, the action is building up.
About 250 acres of land had been acquired during four days of acquisition drive undertaken last month.
Orissa can now divert forest land for the steel project.
Patnaik's statement came a few hours after the anti-posco activists sealed all the six roads connecting the proposed plant site villages located in three gram panchayats under Ersama block in Jagatsinghpur district.
South Korean steel major Posco will build the $12 billion plant in Orissa in three phases and hopes to start work on four million tonne (MT) first phase soon after the land is transferred to it.
When the first phase of the Rs 52,000 crore (Rs 520 billion) steel plant of Posco-India, the Indian subsidiary of South Korean company Posco is completed by 2010 around 7,000 people would get direct employment.
Posco ICT is the IT arm of South Korean steel giant Posco, which proposed to set up a 12 million-tonne steel plant near Paradip.
Nihar Das Pattnaik, the company's manager, CSR, and three others -- Arun Mohapatra, Debasish Swain and Prasant Rout - had gone to Patana village to conduct a survey of households for inclusion in the CSR activities.
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Billed as India's biggest foreign direct investment, the Posco project has been delayed by more than five years.
The Korean major, which is not able to set up the unit for the past seven years because of land acquisition issues and agitation by the locals, has revised its land requirement to 2,700 acres from the earlier 4,000 acres.
The issue on Monday figured in a bilateral meeting held in Agra between Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and visiting South Korean Minister of Knowledge Economy Sukwoo Hong, in which the Korean side raised the issue of delays in Posco project clearance, an official statement said.
South Korean steel major Posco's beleagured Rs 52,000 crore (Rs 520 billion) project near Paradip has received a boost with the Centre according environmental clearance to its captive minor port at Jatadhari mouth in Jagatsinghpur district.
South Korean steel giant Posco's 12 million tonne integrated steel project in Orissa is likely to face further delay.
Five Indian students have been selected by Posco-India for fellowships for a Masters programme at the Graduate School of International Studies in Korea University.
Facing resistance from people who are likely to get displaced by its mega steel project near Paradip, South Korean steel major Posco is looking at "other options".
Only 21 out of the 2,200 odd families, engaged in betel vines cultivation there, have applied for compensation by February 10, the deadline set by the district administration of Jagatsinghpur.
The police on Saturday cracked down on agitators protesting against the Posco plant in Orissa, mostly women and children, at Balitutha, the entry point to the proposed plant site. The police fired teargas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the preotestors, injuring at least 20 people. The security personnel ordered nearly 1,000 agitators of the Communist Party of India-backed Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, who have been on dharna since January 26, to disperse immediately.
In its reply to the MoEF dated August 13, the department of forest and environment has categorically stated that there are no traditional forest dwellers at the Posco site. It has also clarified that there are no claimants under the Forest Rights Act and certain land records pertaining to the erstwhile Bardhaman estate are not authentic.
Steel Authority of India Limited and Posco are in discussions to set up a 1.5 million tonne integrated plant in Bokaro to produce high grade steel from low-grade iron ore and non-coking coal by using the world's third largest steel company's FINEX Technology.
Posco-India has made it clear that it has no intention to shift the site of its 12 million tonne steel project.
A year after signing the MoU with South Korean steel maker Posco, the Orissa government has assured the company of about 1,135 acres of litigation free government land for its proposed 12 million tonne steel project near Paradip. \n
Seeking to dispel confusion over the shifting of Posco plant in Orissa, the state government on Thursday asserted that the Rs 51,000 crore (Rs 510 billion) project of the South Korean steel giant would come up at its proposed site only, near Paradip.
Terminal Zero will be constructed at the port of Abbot Point near Bowen town, Queensland, as per the Memorandum of Understanding inked between the company and Korea's POSCO.
Tension mounted in Dhinkia village in the Posco project site near Paradip in Orissa as the survey teams, conducting a socio-economic survey of the project site, came eyeball to eyeball with the villagers of Dhinkia, who vehemently oppose the project.
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