Putting to rest all speculation, the Orissa government today filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court of India, challenging the verdict of the Orissa High Court which had set aside the state government’s recommendation for a prospecting licence (PL) at the Khandadhar mines in favour of Posco India’s proposed steel making project .
“We have filed the SLP,” Raghunath Mohanty, minister for steel and mines, told reporters.
Worried at the state government’s delay — the deadline for filing ends this week — Posco had already moved the apex court on the same issue.
Referring to the recent row over forest and environment clearance to the project, in the wake of the reports of the Saxena and Gupta committees, Mohanty said, “The state government welcomes the view of Union steel minister Virbhadra Singh, who has suggested that the minister for environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, needs to be realistic on the Posco project.”
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, “It is now the responsibility of the Centre to ensure the Posco project is implemented. It is the biggest FDI (foreign direct investment) in the country, which will bring revenue for the state and the Centre, besides creating many jobs for youths.”
In its petition, the state government has contested the Orissa HC judgement mainly on two grounds. These relate to the status of the Khandadhar mines as a notified area and giving preferential treatment to Posco under Section 11(5) of the the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.
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‘Special project’
“Posco’s proposed mega steel project in Orissa is special, as it will make use of Finex technology in steel making. Besides, the project, costing Rs 54,000 crore, is the country’s single largest FDI. It is on these grounds that we have challenged the verdict,” said a highly placed official source.
“Contrary to the Orissa HC’s decision that the Khandadhar mines are a non-notified area, the state government in its appeal has stated that the area has been notified and hence we can dispose applications and recommend PL cases based on merit. Since the Posco project is special, the state government gave it a preferential treatment and recommended its case for PL even though there were other applicants prior to Posco,” he added
The HC verdict, dated July 14, had set aside the recommendation of the state government for providing a PL in favour of Posco over 2,500 hectares of the Khandadhar iron ore mines in Sundergarh district.
Disposing a petition of Geomin Minerals and Marketing Ltd, a Bhubaneswar-based company competing for the same PL, a two-member bench of judges B P Das and B P Ray had directed the state government to take a fresh decision on the recommendation, setting aside the preferential one to Posco. It told the state government to conduct a fresh hearing of all the 226 applicants for the mines.