The land acquisition for the first-phase construction work of the `52,000-steel project at Paradip is claimed to have been over. Jagatsinghpur district administration, which was entrusted the task, said on Thursday that 2,700 acres of land required for the first phase construction work was completed with dismantling of 25 more betel vines.
In the first phase, Posco will build a 8-million-tonne capacity facility.
“Previously, we had acquired 2000 acres of land, and during the final phase of land acquisition process which ended today, we have obtained 700 acres of more land. With this, the process of land acquisition for the first phase construction work is over,” Surajit Das, additional district magistrate (ADM), Jagatsinghpur, said.
Mr Das said the freshly acquired 700 acres of land would soon be handed over to the state-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development of Corporation (IDCO) which would transfer them to the South Korean steel major.
Posco requires at least 4,004 acres of land for building its proposed 12-million-tonne-capacity project. However, in the face strong opposition to land acquisition by the local people, the company had to scale down its construction to 8-million-tonne in the first phase and state that it would go for capacity addition if land was made available by the state government.
The additional district magistrate said once the Industrial Infrastructure Development of Corpor-ation takes over possession of the acquired land it would go for trench digging and tree cutting activity.
However, trench digging and tree cutting work is unlikely to happen in near future until the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which has ordered for maintaining a status quo on felling of trees and vines in the area, revokes its diktat.
Besides, the Orissa government and Posco are yet to renew their memorandum of understanding (MoU) that expired in June 2010.
The final phase of land acquisition, which began on June 28, was also marked by protests and opposition by the local people led by Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS). There was even mild lathi-charge on the protesters on June 29.
In another development, the PPSS activists said the administration’s claim that the land acquisition process for the first phase construction was completed was a “blatant lie.”
“Knowing very well that it cannot go any longer to displace the people from their ancestral land, the administration, in a bid to save a face, announced that it has completed the land acquisition process. However, we would not allow them to have physical possession the land they are eyeing for,” Sisir Mohapatra, secretary of PPSS, said.