Odisha: UN throws a spanner in the works, but Posco project on track

By Sandeep Sahu Bhubaneswar: It is the proverbial last minute hurdle for Posco. Just as global steel major was beginning to breathe a little easy after the completion of the land acquisition for its proposed 8 million ton per annum (MTPA) steel plant near Paradip comes a report by the UN Human Rights panel asking it to halt work on the project immediately till issues related to the human rights of the affected people are addressed. What is more, the panel has also drawn both the Indian and South Korean governments into the picture and reminded them about their duty to ‘respect’ human rights. [caption id=“attachment_1168115” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] While the Korean steel giant has refrained from commenting on the UN panel’s report so far, Korean ambassador to India Joon-gyu Lee, during a recent visit to Bhubaneswar, tore into it saying the report was totally ‘one-sided’. “They have not come to Bhubaneswar or met people at the ground. A few of them came to Delhi and met people who are opposing the project. They have not met us,” he told journalists here after a meeting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday. He even said it was not a final report and was ‘only some kind of a press release’. That the Korean authorities are not overly bothered about the UN report was clear during the same media interface when the envoy exuded confidence that work on the much-delayed project would start soon. He even expressed the hope that the ground breaking ceremony could take place during Korean President Park Geun Hye’s proposed visit to the country early next year. For good measure, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik too said the project is now ‘well on track’ now. The optimism of Posco, the Korean authorities and the Odisha government regarding start of work on the project, which has already been delayed by eight years, rests on two solid grounds. First, the acquisition of land for the project, which has proved to be the biggest hurdle since the beginning, is now over even if it is only 2, 700 acres instead of the original 4, 004 acres. Second, the Supreme Court has left the final decision on awarding the Khandadhar iron ore mines in Sundargarh district to the Union government. Given the fact that the Manmohan Singh government has been very keen to see the biggest single FDI project in the country through from the very beginning, it should not be much of a problem for Posco to lay its hands on the rich ore deposits in Khandadhar. With Posco having agreed to drop the 30 percent ore swap clause that was part of the original memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the company with the Odisha government on July 22, 2005 and to abide by the government’s decision on earmarking a certain percentage of jobs in the plant for people from the state, the two sides are now busy giving finishing touches to the revised MoU, which could be signed in the next few days. The most encouraging development for the Korean company in recent times, however, has been the gradual fizzling out of the protest movement spearheaded by the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS). A formidable organisation in the none-too-distant past, PPSS is now reduced to a rump with its president Abhay Sahoo and a handful of loyal supporters holding on the fast crumbling fort. In hindsight, the decision to leave out the troublesome Dhinkia panchayat, Sahoo’s bastion, from the purview of the project has taken the wind out of the sails of the PPSS, even though it has resulted in the truncation of the project from 12 MTPA initially to 8 MTPA now. Just about the only hurdle that remains to be overcome now before work can begin on the project is the ongoing case in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) filed by activist Prafulla Samantara challenging the felling of trees on land acquired for the plant. If, as looks likely, the green body accepts Posco’s contention that Samantara’s petition, filed only in 2013, is ‘time-barred’, the project that has tested the patience of every stakeholder for eight years may finally see the light of the day.