Posco is upbeat over the recent favourable Supreme Court verdict on the Khandadhar iron ore mines, for which Posco had applied for a Prospecting licence (Pl).
No wonder, Posco-India Deputy Managing Director Ho Chan Ryu called on State Principal Secretary of Steel and Mines Rajesh Verma here on Monday to expedite renewal of the South Korean company’s MoU with the Government, which is pending for quite some time.
Chan seemed happy over the apex court’s judgement as it set aside the Odisha High Court’s verdict that had rejected the Government’s recommendations for the Khandadhar mines in favour of Posco to enable the company to set up its mega steel project near Paradip.
The Department of Steel & Mines now seems to be showing positive signs for renewal of the MoU, the term of which has expired since June 22, 2010.
And in the project site, the land acquisition drive is progressing fast with the resistance by the anti-Posco brigade having weakened. Paradip Additional District Magistrate Surjeet Das said a total of 15 betel vines were dismantled and 385
horticultural plants cut down on Wednesday. A large chunk of Kewda plantations was also removed by using excavators, he informed, adding that the administration paid compensation to the land loser families at Gobindpur village.
Das said the administration is poised to complete the land acquisition process and hand over the land to Posco soon. Posco requires 2,700 acres to begin construction of an 8-mtpa steel plant in the first phase. The administration has already handed over about 1,700 acres to the company, Das said.
Meanwhile, anti-Posco activists held a meeting at Patana village, about half a km from the land acquisition site. The protester under the banner of the CPI-backed Posco Pratorodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) also held demonstrations at Kujang, Ersama, Biridi and Paradip demanding release of PPSS leader Abhay Sahoo, who has been arrested on charge of being involved in an incident of bomb explosion at a Posco site village in which three persons were killed on March 2. "We will fight till the end," local sarpanch Sisir Mohapatra who is leading the anti-Posco group in Sahoo's absence, said.