Jagatsinghpur, Odisha: With the ratification of the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2015 by Parliament, which disallows preferential treatment for giving mining leases, uncertainty looms over the future of the steel-giant POSCO, threatening the future of over 2,000 families in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha, who had given away their land for the project.
It has been almost 10 years since the South Korean steel giant signed a MoU with the Naveen Patnaik government for installing a steel plant in the state, and the project has been mired in controversy all the way. Though the state government had recommended the Centre to provide the prospecting license for the Khandhar mines to the company, the proposal could not be materialised.
Now, with the passage of the MMDR Bill, POSCO no longer has the first right over the mines and will have to instead participate in the open auction process along with the other steel companies.
This has, in turn, affected the villagers in Noilasahi and other adjoining villages of Jagatsinghpur district in Odisha. They had given away their betel vines, their only source of occupation, to the government in lieu of compensation and jobs.
However, with POSCO's future at stake, the promised job seems a distant dream for the villagers, who are living under abject poverty. The compensation money they got, has also been exhausted and with no means of regular income, the villagers are now threatening to once again revive the betel cultivation on the same land, which they had once owned.
"When POSCO came to our village, they had promised us a lot of benefits. But, except a little money in exchange of our betel vines, we have not yet got anything. If our problems are not resolved soon, we will once again start betel cultivation on the same land, which we had handed to the government for the POSCO project four years ago," said Niranjan Behera, a villager.
However, the district administration is of a different viewpoint. They say that since the betel cultivation was carried out on government-owned land, the villagers have no right over it at the first place.
"The villagers have been adequately compensated for the land. They don't have the right to take the land because it is government land," said Satya Kumar Mallick, District Collector, Jagatsinghpur district.
Meanwhile, the Odisha Government is in talks with the Centre, to grant the Khandadhar mining lease to POSCO in order to avoid sending wrong signals to international investors.
But, if the Centre decides against granting the mining lease to POSCO, it will be a huge setback for the Korean steel giant and the villagers who supported it and also be a huge embarrassment for the state government.