 "BJD to raise Posco issue, oppose Land Bill in Parliament")
"The Centre has not extended its expected support on the Posco issue. Our party will seek the intervention of the Prime Minister to ensure that the Posco project is commissioned in Odisha", said BJD Lok Sabha leader Bhatruhari Mahtab.
The state government is believed to have gone on the damage control mode after Posco announced to temporarily freeze its $12 billion steel plant in Odisha. The government is also mulling to bring Posco India on the talking table to discuss threadbare the company's intent. Inordinate delay in land acquisition and the row over iron ore deposits had pushed the Posco project to the back foot since it signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government in June 2005. For Posco, the latest nail in the coffin came with the enactment of the amended Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) MMDR Act, 2015 that ruled out grant of any mining lease to the company. On the party's stand on Land Acquisition Bill, he said, "We will reiterate our demand for inclusion of land-owners as stakeholders in the proposed projects that would come up on their land. We will seek an amendment to the Land Acquisition Bill to include this aspect."
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The BJD clarified its stand after a meeting of the Parliamentary Board chaired by party supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik. BJD's Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda said the party would raise several issues affecting the state. He said the central government's decision to slash funds on some schemes and abolish some others would be raised in the monsoon session.
The BJD with a strength of 27 MPs (20 in Lok Sabha and seven Rajya Sabha) is expected to play a key role in the passage of the Land Acquisition Bill.
At today's meeting, four party MPs - Kalpataru Das, Sarojini Hembram, Anubhav Mohanty and Sidhant Mohapatra were absent.