The Forest Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forest has accepted the Odisha Government’s proposal for transfer of forest clearance of the 1083.69-hectare land acquired for POSCO near Paradip to JSW Utkal Steel Limited to set up an integrated steel plant of 12 million tonne capacity. It said “This proposal has been deliberated in earlier meetings. FAC observed that the approval under Forest Conservation Act, 1980 granted to one project proponent for a specific purpose, can be transferred to another project proponent if the purposed land use remains the same. The balance forest land of 169.53 hectares shall be returned to the Forest department. This land shall be adequately afforested with native forestry species and protected at the cost of a new user agency.”
The State Government had informed the MoEF&CC that the POSCO-India has no objection if the approval is granted to the new project proponent. Around 447 families are likely to be displaced by the proposed steel project.
Nearly 400 people of six villages of Kujang block will be affected by the proposed steel plant project of JSW. The decision of transfer of land to JSW has now sparked resentment among the locals and other outfits who had earlier spearheaded the anti-POSCO agitation.
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