Troubles are far from over for global steel giant Posco to set up its Rs 54,000 crore steel plant in Jagatsinghpur in Orissa with tribals in the area divided over allowing the Korean company to enter. Although Orissa?s Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IIDCO) has offered 200 acres of ?undisputed? land for Posco to start work on, the state government would now have to restart the entire process of identifying the beneficiaries of the Forest Rights Act.
?The state government proposes to talk to village councils again and take their consent before the transfer of government?s forest land is started in favour of Posco. This is expected to be complicated considering the division in support of the steel project,? a source said.
The eight villages that will be affected by the Posco project (six of them are inhabited) are sharply divided in their reactions to the project. In almost every village, part of the population is opposed to the project and part of it welcomes it. Those villagers who are opposed to Posco are not willing to discuss the rehabilitation package.
At present, in almost every village, except one, the villagers are almost equally divided between supporters of the Posco project and opponents of the project. One village, Dhinkia, however, has remained steadfastly opposed to the project so much so that the villagers drove out of the village the few families that were favourably inclined towards the project. The villagers of Dhinkia also started a blockade of the village to prevent government or Posco officials from entering the village.
?The Orissa government had produced some documents to the environment ministry in 2007 but the ministry is now seeking further guarantee. The ground situation is just the same,? said the source. The state government had ?fast tracked? the process in 2007, so much so that compensation packages were doled out to as many as 100 people in five days.