BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government today said it would like the Centre to accept its recommendations in favor of Posco and termed Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s statement that the South Korean steel major too must participate in bidding in order to get mining lease, as “going back from international commitment”.
“The present Prime Minister and the previous Prime Minister have assured the company and the South Korean leaders that the Centre would support the steel project. It is like making a commitment to the South Korea,” Odisha’s Steel and Mines minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick told reporters.
Voicing displeasure over Tomar’s statement, Mallick said the state government had already submitted all requisite documents to the Centre much before the ordinance on MMDR amendment in order to ensure prospecting license in favor of Posco-India on Khandadhar iron ore reserve.
Tomar had yesterday said that all firms will have to participate in the auction process to get a mining lease.
“Even I will have to bid to get a mining lease,” he had said, putting a lid on Odisha’s demand that commitments should be honored under the new dispensation to avoid sending a wrong signal to international investor community.
“This is high time Centre should accept state’s recommendation and fulfill its international commitment. As the recommendation in favor of Posco was made much before the Center’s ordinance on auction of non-coal mines, the Centre should spare the foreign investor from the bidding process,” Mallick said.
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi also had assured the company of support in the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country.
Stating that the state government had also made international commitment to Posco while signing MoU in 2005, Mallick said Odisha would again take up the matter with the Centre.
“We want that the Centre should accept our recommendation and respect its and our international commitment,” the minister said. Posco was previously promised by the Odisha government that the Khandadhar iron ore mine would be given to feed its proposed mega steel plant. But the actual allocation never happened due to delay in regulatory approvals.
The company, which signed an MoU with the state government in 2005, failed to undertake the project as it could not get required land and also the raw material linkage in time.
The Centre, however, maintained that now, with the MMDR Amendment Ordinance 2015 is in public domain, it is not possible to offer the Khandadhar mine to Posco on preferential basis.
The Centre blamed the Odisha government for its failure to meet the technical requirements before the Ordinance as was sought by the Centre on notified and non-notified areas of the block spread over 2,500 hectares which the state government had decided to offer to Posco in 2009.
Reportedly, there were more than 200 applicants for the Khandadhar iron ore deposits, but the state government had recommended the lease for Posco calling the project the biggest FDI in the state.
Odisha BJP president and former minister K V Singhdeo, however, countered the state government. “It is a bid of the state government to hide its mistakes. The state has not renewed the MoU with Posco and also failed to provide required land to Posco to set up its proposed 12mtpa steel mill near Paradip,” Singhdeo pointed out.
Seeking a clarification from Odisha government on its alleged inability to acquire land for Posco during last 10 years, Singhdeo said, “The state is trying to throw blame ball to the Centre’s court. It is clearly an attempt to escape from its responsibility.” –PTI
