CMSR bags Posco socio-economic survey work

Survey is for rehabilitation of displaced families affected by procurement of land for Posco's steel project

Hyderabad-based Centre for Management & Social Research (CMSR) has bagged the job for conducting socio-economic survey at the proposed site of Posco's mega steel project near Paradeep.

“We hereby place this work order in your favour for conducting socio-economic survey in respect of rehabilitation of displaced families affected by procurement of land for establishment of Posco steel project in an area measuring 2772.05 acres government land and de-reserved forest land in eight villages namely Dhinkia, Nuagaon, Gobindpur, Jatadhar, Polanga, Bhuyanpal, Noliashai and Bayanala Kandha under Ersama teshil in Jagatsinghpur district”, S K Mohapatra, land officer, Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) wrote to CMSR.

The scope of work includes conduct of socio-economic survey, demographic profile of land losers, detailed family list of land losers, balance land after acquisition, age and sex wise distribution of land losers, distribution of land losers by primary occupation, their economic condition and families likely to get benefit under rehabilitation & resettlement (R&R) policy, 2006.

The socio economic survey for rehabilitation of displaced families would be conducted as per the Odisha R&R (rehabilitation & resettlement) policy, 2006 in accordance with the guidelines issued by the revenue & disaster management in its notification dated April 24, 2008. The survey work is to be completed within 45 days from the date of issue of work order.

In June this year, Idco had invited expression of interest (EoI) to conduct socio-economic survey for rehabilitation of displaced families affected by the Posco project. Idco has acquired 2,772.05 acres of land to facilitate establishment of an eight million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel mill by Posco India in the first phase.

This includes 2,193.52 acres de-reserved forest land and 578.53 acres government land. Out of this, 1703.56 acres have been handed over to the company.

Idco is sore over non-deposit of Rs 54.22 crore by Posco India as government land cost for 2,193.52 acres. This has held up sanction of lease of additional 1,048.52 acres for the project.The South Korean steel major had proposed to set up a 12 mtpa steel project that needed 4,004 acres.

But it had later redesigned the project following prolonged local agitation against land acquisition and sought 2,700 acres of land in the first phase to start construction of a 8 mpta steel plant.The land has been acquired under Kujang and Erasama tehsils in Jagatsinghpur district in 10 villages - Dhinkia, Nuagaon, Gobindpur, Jatadhar, Polanga, Bhuyanpal, Noliasahi, Bayanala Kandha, Sandhakuda and Badagapur.

Another sticky issue for Posco is non-deposit of Rs 18.79 crore towards differential NPV (net present value) of de-reserved forest land. Due to non-deposit of this amount with the forest department, the order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) is not being carried out by the department for notification of de-reserved forest land.

The NPV is the amount the user agencies need to deposit for diversion of forest land. It includes the cost of the land along with tangible and intangible benefits of the forest area and is charged at Rs 5.8 lakh to Rs 9.2 lakh per hectare depending on the type and density of the diverted forest land.