The Orissa government seems to have landed in an embarrassing spot in connection with the submission of report to the Union ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) on the issue of compliance with Forest Rights Act (FRA) at the Posco site.
Though the state government had exuded confidence to send the report to the ministry before the end of February, claimants of FRA at the project site appeared to have played spoilsport and delayed the process of filing of response. The state government had reiterated that there are no tribals at the Posco site, has for the first time demonstrated its preparedness to deal with the claims of FRA.
Asked if there are claimants at the Posco project site, the state Chief Secretary B K Patnaik said, “All claims would be scrutinized by the state government. We had asked for the comments of the Jagatsinghpur district administration and they have submitted the same. We have already clarified that there are no tribals at the Posco site.”
Even though the Chief Secretary had stated on Monday that the report would be sent to MoEF within 2-3 days, it appears doubtful.
"The report is still with the department of tribal affairs and we are yet to receive it”, said a senior official of the state forest & environment department.
"The filing of the response to the MoEF on the Posco issue has been delayed as of late, there have been claimants to FRA at the project site”, admitted an official source.
Meanwhile, the state industries minister Raghunath Mohanty has stated that the number of displaced families of the Posco project would come down to 613 from 803 after exclusion of 300 acres of private land at Dhinkia.
“The total requirement of private land for the Posco project would come down to 152.69 acres after leaving aside 300 acres of private land at Dhinkia. Further, the number of families to be displaced by the project would also be reduced from 803 to 613”, Mohanty told mediapersons.
In its final order on the Posco project, the MoEF had held that before taking a final decision on the issue of diversion of forest land, the state government has to give a categorical assurance to the ministry that at least one of the three conditions is not fulfilled in case of those claiming to be dependent on or cultivating land in the Posco project area.
These conditions include having permanently resided in the forest for 75 years prior to December 13, 2005, present dependence on forest or forest land for bona fide livelihood needs and having been in occupation of forest land before December 13, 2005. According to the order of the ministry, non-tribals who meet these conditions constitute Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs).
The ministry in its order dated January 31 this year had imposed 28 conditions on the mega steel plant as well as captive power plant proposed near Paradip and 32 conditions for the captive port of the company to be set up at Jatadhari Muhan in Jagatsinghpur district.Work on the Posco project had come to a grinding halt after the MoEF had issued a stop work order on August 5 last year. The Posco project needed 4004 acres in all out of which 2958 acres comprised forest land.
It may be noted that a high-level team consisting of Priyabrata Patnaik, chairman and managing director of Industrial Infrastructure Corporation of Orissa (Idco) and the state Director General of Police, Manmohan Praharaj had visited the Posco site last month to take sock of the ground level progress.
