BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa Gana Parishad on Saturday criticised the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government for what it called showing undue favours to Korean steel major POSCO which is setting up a 12 million tonne capacity steel mill in the State.

At a press conference here, OGP president Bijay Mohapatra alleged that the State government had thrown all norms to the winds while recommending to the Centre for grant of prospecting licence of Khandadhar mines to the company.

Mr. Mohapatra said that his party would shortly send a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh giving details of the "irregularities" committed by the State government in recommending the grant of prospecting licence to POSCO.

The OGP president alleged that the State government had not considered the applications submitted by as many as 130 companies while recommending the case of POSCO.

The government had shown favours to the Korean company although there was no reason to recommend the case.

Although the State government had not specified the area earmarked for the prospecting licence to be given to POSCO, Mr. Mohapatra alleged that the area that was to be handed over to the company spread over 62 sq km. The area had deposit of about 700 million tonnes of iron ore worth at least Rs. 1,40,000 crore, he added.

Questions raised

Pointing out the Central Government's Mining Department had already raised questions on the recommendation letter of the State government, Mr. Mohapatra expressed hope that the Centre would go by rules and not take any decision blindly.

Questioning the government's intentions in hurrying up the process in favour of POSCO, Mr. Mohapatra alleged that POSCO had no intention to establish the steel plant but to grab mines so that it could export iron ore to Korea.

The recommendation for grant of prospecting licence had been made by the State government even though the company was yet to take possession of land at the proposed plant site in Jagatsinghpur district, Mr. Mohapatra said.

The State's valuable mineral resources should not be handed over to foreign companies at `throwaway prices', Mr. Mohapatra said, while expressing the hope that the Centre would detect `the irregularities committed by the State Government.'

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail