BJD flays Congress on Posco

The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa today lambasted the state Congress for opposing the mega steel venture proposed by Posco at Paradip. The state Congress unit has called a state-wide agitation tomorrow to protest against grant of certain "concessions" to the South Korean company by the government in the MoU signed with it for the project.

The Congress' stand is "anti-development and against the interests of the state", said Damodar Rout, the secretary general of BJD. He said, the decision to sign the MoU with Posco was taken with the consent and approval of the UPA government led by Congress at the Centre.

"No state government will ahead with a project envisaging 12 billion dollar FDI flow without active support and clearance of the Centre", he added.

If the state Congress unit has anything against the project, it should better demonstrate before the house of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said sarcastically turning the table on the opposition stand. Rout further informed that the state government agreed to sign the MoU with Posco after the Centre assured to build infrastructure facilities like road and rail connectivity worth about Rs 4,000 crore for the project.

Coming out strongly in support of the project, the BJD secretary general said, during its tenure the previous Congress government in Orisa had allotted mining leases to many people who later did not put up any steel plant in the state and only prospered by trading in the ore.

Even today 10,000 truck load of iron ore is exported from Orissa without any value addition. Rout said the present government is laying emphasis on value addition of minerals within the state while considering any application for mining lease, Rout said, Posco has only been allowed to export a certain percentage of ore outside against import of equivalent quantity of better quality ore for blending purposes.

He said, the Posco project will put the state on accelerated growth path as it will encourage many other foreign companies to invest in the state. The project is expected to contribute Rs 22,500 crore in tax revenue to the state and Rs 89,000 crore to the Centre over next 30 years.

Though the project is said to generate direct and indirect employment to the tune of 48,000 the actual employment potential of the project will be over one lakh considering the downstream and upstream businesses which will flourish depending on the Posco venture, he added.