Opposition is brewing in the eastern Indian state of Odisha among the local population against the 13.2 million mt per year greenfield steel mill project planned by JSW Limited, government officials said on Wednesday, November 24.
The officials said that a large section of the local population close to Paradip port town where the project is to be located have launched a protest movement against the estimated $4 billion steel project and have disrupted the government-arranged ‘public hearing’ aimed at mustering support from the locals.
Significantly, it may be noted that JSW Limited which proposes to implement the steel mill project through JSW Utkal Steel Limited is slated to build the project on the very land at Paradip which had several years ago ben allocated by the state government for a greenfield steel mill project of South Korea’s POSCO, but it was subsequently abandoned by the latter in the face of public opposition.
“We have been opposing the industrial project on our land which is suitable and lucrative for betel leaf farming for the last 17 years. Most of the land parcels for the industry come under the forest category. The government should first take steps to provide us with a record of the rights (RoR) of our forest land as per the Forest Rights Act 2006, which we have been rightfully using for the last 100 years,” Debendra Swain, a local resident and leader of the opposition movement, said.
JSW Limited in a statement said that the boundary wall of the project site will start in December and compensations payable to farmers of betel leaves, prawns and fruit trees have been revised upwards.