Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik may have initiated a political process to solve the Posco crisis, but party MLAs are playing spoilsport.

While the state government has entrusted CPI, MP from Jagatsinghpur, Bibhu Prasad Tarai, to negotiate with anti-Posco groups to come to the talks table with the state government, ruling BJD MLAs aren?t letting Tarai act on his new assignment.

The BJD MLAs including the state agriculture minister and the MLA from nearby Paradip constituency Damodar Rout on Saturday organised a meeting between the United Action Forum (UAF), a pro Posco-group, and the district administration. It was decided at the meeting that the last-phase survey of Posco?s 4,004-acre proposed site would get underway from Tuesday. The meeting also decided to finalise the compensation package after the survey.

The UAF has demanded Rs 40 lakh compensation for an acre of private land, Rs 25 lakh per acre of enchroached government land, and Rs 25,000 per decimal of betel vine as part of its 29 point charter of demands. Bibhu Prasad Tarai, MP (CPI) has urged the state to stop the survey till the talks with the anti-Posco group is completed.

In a letter to the CM, Tarai has said that the final phase be kept on hold till the issues with anti-Posco groups are settled.

Tarai’s job is far from easy. He has to convince the Posco Pratrirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), which has offered the maximum resistance to the project, to climb down from its stand _ it wants the steel major to be shifted to another site.

The government is finding it difficult to push through the project as the PPSS has built up momentum in the three-gram panchyats that forms the core area of the project site. The UAF has a substantial influence in Gada Kujanga area, which also forms a part of the site.

Political observers apprehend that district politics may lead to a showdown between pro and anti Posco groups. The state agriculture minister, who has a tremendous following in Jagatsinghpur district, is miffed with Patnaik for handing over the Posco peace initiative to the CPI MP. A known dissident in the Patnaik government, Rout is unlikely to take it laying down. This new political equation in the district is likely to have its impact on the process of negotiation in sorting out the Posco land dispute.