Bhubaneswar: Move to buy land for 8-mtpa steel project resumes after year’s gap

The process of acquiring land for Posco’s $12-billion steel plant near Orissa’s Paradip port in Jagatsinghpur district resumed on Sunday, leading to tension in the area. Officials from the Orissa government made a surprise entry into Gobindpur village early on Sunday morning led by district collector Satya Mallik accompanied by police.

Twelve platoons of armed police forces entered Gobindpur, part of the Posco steel project site near Paradip, early on Sunday morning and evicted people from dozens of betel gardens to acquire 700 acres of government land.

While some people, apparently fearing government backlash, parted with the government land under their “illegal” possession, a few others resisted and clashed with the security personnel.

After a lull of one and half years, the Odisha government has resumed the land acquisition drive for the beleaguered Posco steel project near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district. But with the project opponents stiffly opposing the move, tension prevailed in the area.

Aided by 12 platoons of police, the officials of state revenue department and Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) on Sunday entered the trouble torn Gobindpur village in the Posco site to acquire a patch of 700 acres of land, crucial for start of work on the project.

The project, supposed to be ready last year, had been delayed due to labour and land issues, and slow progress on the power plant front
Shine Jacob

With environment clearances delaying Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)’s product pipeline, the state-run company plans to commission its Rs 30,000-crore refinery at Paradip in Odisha this September.

Paradip: The anti-Posco agitation in Jagatsinghpur district took a new turn today with children and women joining the stir for the first time in two years as the government prepared to resume land acquisition in the proposed plant site.

Over 2,000 school going children, college students and women joined a sit-in at Balitikira of Gobindpur gram panchayat organised by Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), a CPI-backed body opposing the South Korean steel major since it inked a MoU with the state government in 2005.

Land acquisition drive for Posco steel unit project in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district which was scheduled to commence from today failed to take off.

"The work was to recommence today. But due to unavoidable reasons it could not be taken up. It'll start soon," Paradip additional district magistrate Surajit Das said. The land acquisition work had been suspended in the area since a violence in the area on June 10, 2011.

Despite concerns from several quarters including the Odisha High Court, bio-medical waste management and handling in different government hospitals including three state-run medical colleges and ho

Despite concern over the end use of both ground and river water for industrial purposes, the use of ground water for drinking, irrigation and industries in Odisha is 26.14 per cent.

The unseasonal rains and hailstorm that hit north coastal districts on December 11 and 12 claimed eight lives apart from damaging standing crop and houses.