Six months after the expiry of the MoU between Poco and the Orissa government for setting up a 12 mtpa steel plant, the South-Korean major is yet to reply certain queries made by the state government for its renewal, official sources said today.
"Certain queries have been made to Posco-India. But it is yet to respond. Once it is received, there should be no problem in renewing the MoU," State Chief Secretary B K Patnaik told reporters here.
The MoU issue was raised after the Centre on January 31 gave conditional clearance to the Posco project.
The tenure of the five-year MoU with the South Korean steel major lapsed on June 21, 2010, official sources said, adding that the proposed project to set up a mega steel plant near Paradip had failed to make much headway.
"We will renew the MoU with Posco at appropriate time," Steel and Mines Minister Raghunath Mohanty said.
Sources said Posco-India was reluctatnt to accept any new clause in the renewed MoU suggested by the state government.
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The state government, which has decided to reserve jobs for local people in all mega projects, wanted it to be incorporated in the fresh MoU with Posco-India, sources said.
According to the government's new job reservation policy, all industries setting up units in the state would provide at least 90 per cent jobs in unskilled category to local people including the families affected by project and upto 60 per cent jobs in semi-skilled category.
Similarly, 30 per cent of the jobs need to go to local people of the state in supervisor and managerial cadre. However, senior executive posts could be filled from outside the state, the new policy said.
While other mega projects including Tata Steel and Jindal have already accepted the state’s job reservation policy, which is yet to be notified, Posco-India has been reluctant to accept it claiming that job reservation on geographical basis did not conform to the constitutional provisions of India.
"However, we hope Posco-India will soon cooperate for renewing the MoU," the minister said.