Besides recommending a prospecting license (PL) for over 25 sq km of iron ore field at Khandadhar in favour of Posco India, the Orissa government has decided to keep another 35 sq km of reserve for the future needs of the South Korean steel major, official sources have said.
With regards to the additional area of approximately 35 sq km available in the Khandadhar iron ore reserve in Sundargarh district, the state government has decided to keep it with its own reach so that it could meet the commitment of supplying 600 million tonnes of iron ore to Posco India, a recent order signed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik said.
The state government, which committed through an MoU to supply 600 million tonnes of iron ore to the South Korean giant for its proposed 12 MTPA capacity Greenfield project near Paradip, had recommended only 2500 acres of iron ore field for PL in January this year.
Though earlier, the state government had recommended 6204.325 hectares of iron ore field for PL in favour of Posco in December, 2006, it preferred to squeeze the area on its latest recommendation to the Central government.
The state government's recommendation made in 2006, was rejected by the Centre in the wake of a litigation in the Orissa High Court.
The state government, which finally made a fresh recommendation in favour of Posco in January 2009, decided to allot less area in comparison to the previous recommendation, steel and mines minister Pradip Amat informed.
The state government's decision to keep more iron ore deposits with an intention of meeting Posco's future demands, however, sparked a controversy as the chief minister, chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy, Amat and steel and mines secretary Ashok Dalwai signed on the order sheet in the month of April when the model code of conduct was in force.
When Amat, Tripathy and Dalwai signed the document before the first phase of polling on April 16, the chief minister put his signature on April 19, the date in between the two phases of polling. Claiming that it was not a violation of the model code of conduct for the elections, Amat said it was an ongoing process.
"We have not signed in any new file. PL to Posco and related matter was in process since the company signed MoU with the state government on June 22, 2005", he pointed out. This apart, the minister said that the state government signed the document as it was supposed to comply with an order of the Orissa High Court.
Source: Orissa Diary
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