Armed with the final forest clearance order for the mega Posco steel project near Paradip, Orissa government today decided to resume land acquisition activities from May 18 even as opponents of the South Korean steel major were preparing to foil the bid.
"The state government will begin land acquisition work for Posco project from the place where it halted last year in view of a stop work order from the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF). The land acquisition work will be completed within a month," chairman-cum-managing director of the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) Priyabrat Patnaik told reporters.
The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting between the Chief Secretary B K Patnaik, IDCO officials and representatives from the Jagatsinghpur district administration. Some senior police officers also attended the meeting.
The IDCO which was in-charge of acquiring land for different projects, had to abandon land acquisition work at the proposed plant site villages of Posco on August 6, 2010 after the MoEF objected to it based on the recommendation of the N C Saxena Committee which pointed out gross violation of provisions under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
Claiming that the project had meanwhile, received support from majority of the local people, Patnaik said that the government had retrieved about 11 acre of land during the previous land acquisition effort by acquiring 96 betel vines plantations. The affected betel vine farmers were given adequate compensation.
