South Korean steel major Posco has asked the State Government to include the trouble-torn Dhinkia village in its project area during the ongoing land acquisition process so that it would be easier to set up a coastal road for its 8-MTPA steel complex near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district.
Notably, way back in 2011, Dhinkia was excluded from the land acquisition process because of stiff resistance from the villagers to hand over their land for the Posco project.
So, when acquisition of 268 acres of private land in Dhinkia village was stopped two years ago, now POSCO-India CMD’s proposal to acquire land in that village has raised many eyebrows.
Official sources revealed that Posco-India CMD Yong Won Yoon proposed this to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik during their discussion at the State Secretariat here on Friday.
Yoon raised the issue when he was told that the required 2,700 acres of land would be handed over to the company by the end of this month. Posco’s proposal is said to have surprised the Chief Minister and senior officials present at the meeting.
Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Aditya Prasad Padhi, IDCO CMD Vishal Dev and other senior officials were present at the meeting.
When the State Government is ready to hand over 2,700 acres of litigation-free land to Posco to set up its steel mill, why the company is proposing such a seemingly unachievable task, queried a senior official. The officials were taken aback as to why such a proposal is being mooted when the required land for the project would be made available to the company in a few days so as to facilitate project construction works easily.
When the Posco top honcho was asked as to why the company is not taking up construction of the much-needed coastal road project at this point of time, Yoon said inclusion of Dhinkia village in the project area would really facilitate the road connectivity.
The officers engaged in land acquisition are now upset over the dillydallying tactic of Posco in starting its CSR activities in the villages to earn goodwill of the affected villagers. And now the proposal to include Dhinkia in the land acquisition plan has raised questions over Posco’s intentions of setting the steel mill, pointed out a senior officer.