The state government has asked the Jagatsinghpur district administration to prepare agenda notes and dates for the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) meeting, which will be conducted to address concerns of the locals.
"We will organise the next RPDAC meeting very soon. The RDC (Revenue Divisional Commissioner), central division, has asked me to prepare the agenda notes, and it is complete already. The meeting will be held by the end of this month or in early February," said Satya Kumar Mallick, district collector, Jagatsinghpur.
The meeting is supposed to consider the demands of the project affected persons such as jobs and other compensation claims.
In the last RPDAC meeting, held in 2011, it was decided to pay Rs 17 lakh per acre to the agricultural land losers and compensate the betel vine owners at the rate of Rs 11 lakh per acre of vine plantation
In its recent revalidation of Environment Clearance, the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has stipulated that Posco must spend at least five per cent of the project cost, which comes to about $ 600 million, (Rs 2,600 crore) towards social commitments and peripheral development.
Meanwhile, project opponents said, they are gearing up to protest the start of work at the proposed plant site near Paradip.
"We are gearing up to protest the start of construction work. We will protest during the scheduled visit of South Korean president to India. We have tied up with various organisations for rallies in large cities of the country in support of our cause," said Abhaya Sahu, head of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS).
The PPSS, spearheading the anti-Posco agitation for last eight years, said it will continue to oppose the project construction despite environmental nod from Centre.
"We will burn effigy of M veerappa Moily during our protest meeting," said Sahu.
Moily, as soon as took charges of the MoEF after the exit of Jayanthi Natarajan, is said to have cleared proposals of worth Rs 1.4 lakh crore including Posco plant. The clearances for the port and waste pipeline proposal of Posco is yet to be received.
The boundary wall construction work of the plant has been continuing in the area, in fits and starts. Project supporters said, they would soon organise agitation to press for the fulfilment of their long standing demands.
"We want holding of RPDAC meeting at the earliest and start of the project work," said Tamil Pradhan, a leader of the project supporters in the area.
The state government, meanwhile, has sent its recommendation for grant of prospecting licence (PL) for an iron ore mine in favour of the plant. The state steel and mines minister has said, it will soon sign an agreement with company. Though the state government had signed MoU with Posco way back in 2005, its tenure lapsed after five years in 2010. Since then, there has been no formal agreement with Posco for the proposed plant. The minister said, the fresh agreement would be signed based on a guideline given by the Centre.
