Orissa to resume land acquisition for Posco project from May18

Bhubaneswar, May 7 (PTI) Armed with the final forest
clearance order for the mega Posco steel project near Paradip,
government of the eastern Indian state of Orissa on Saturday
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 Indian 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.