17 July 2010

BHUBANESWAR, 17 JULY: Even as the Orissa government claimed that there was no tribal family in the proposed plant site villages of Posco near Paradip, a Central team headed by Mr NC Saxena was scheduled to visit the area on 23 and 24 July to ascertain the facts, official sources said today.

The Central team’s visit to the proposed plant site assumed significance in the face of allegation that the state government violated Forest Land Rights Act while recommending Posco’s application for forest land conversion.
The state government in its recommendation had mentioned that no tribal was living in the three gram panchayat areas under Ersama block, demarcated for housing the Rs 51,000 crore mega steel project.
It had also claimed that no other traditional forest dweller was in possession of land since three generations and those identified to get affected due to the project had not made any claim over the forest land under the Act.

However, CPI-backed Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) alleged that the state government misled the Centre on tribal residents in the area as well as on traditional forest dwellers.

“There are about 10 tribal families at Polang area under Gada Kujang gram panchayat and a large number of non-tribal traditional forest dwellers in posession of forest land in the three gram panchayats,” claimed PPSS President Abhay Sahu while welcoming the central team.

Meanwhile, Posco-India had been given forest clearance by the Centre in December, 2009 basing on state government’s recommendation that there was no tribal inhabitant in the area. pti

Related posts:

1. Land acquisition by govt. for Posco illegal, says Central team
2. MoEF/MoTA Committee Report of visit to Jagatsinghpur
3. Naveen agrees to visit Posco steel plant site