After Karnataka, it’s the time for the people of Odisha to force the Government to say goodbye to the South Korean steel major Posco from the soil of Odisha,” said National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) convener Prafulla Samantara here on Wednesday.
Samantara said land acquisition for Posco was resisted by farmers in Karnataka and the State Government did not come forward to acquire land forcefully. Neither the last BJP Government nor the present newly-elected Congress Government dared to give iron ore on lease to a foreign company like Posco, which finally decided to close its steel project, he said.
But in Odisha, Samantara said, the State Government bowed down before the company and assured it to give 600 million tonnes of iron ore on lease from the Khandadhar mine, for which State would get only one tenth of the market price that is more than Rs 7,000 today.
Therefore, the Posco would get a minimum profit of Rs 3 lakh out of a tonne of iron ore after deduction of royalty and all expenditure of exploration and appeasing people in power from Bhubaneswar to Delhi, he alleged.
“If today the State Government decides not to give iron ore on lease but at market price, the next day Posco will not only quit Odisha but also India,” said Samantara. Because of the Government’s favours to the Posco, the company has camped here even though people’s resistance against it continues, he added.