Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The combined area required by these units has now been assessed at 33,268.5 acres, 16.48 per cent less than the 37,750 acres envisaged in the memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between these companies and the state government.

The state-owned Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa (Ipicol) had appointed MN Dastur & Co as consultant to prepare a report on the land requirement of various industries after receiving complains about companies demanding more land than they needed for the projects.

Ipicol, based on the report, has reassessed the land needs of the projects. The mega units that have been affected include Posco India, Jindal Steel and Power, Mittal Steel (India), Uttam Galva Steels, Sterlite Iron and Steel, and Bhushan Steel.

On the other hand, there has been no reduction in the land requirement of four mega units — Essar Steel Orissa (2,500 acres), SSL Energy (2,000 acres), Tata Steel (3,500 acres) and Welspun Power and Steel (2,200 acres). Out of the total land requirement, these steel companies have already applied for allotment of 32,034.9 acres, sources say.

Posco India, a subsidiary of South Korean steel major Posco, had sought 6,000 acres in the MoU signed with the state government in 2005 for its proposed 12-million-tonne per annum project near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district. Ipicol, based on the Dastur & Co report, has reassessed the land requirement at 5,525 acres. The company has so far applied for 5,151 acres. While the state government has allotted 516 acres of its land to Posco, the company has already invested Rs 175.5 crore.

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, which is setting up a six-million-tonne per annum steel project at Kerajang, needed about 5,750 acres. This has been cut to 3,843.5 acres by Ipicol. The company has applied to the Orissa government for 4,027 acres and has been allotted 1,719 acres. This includes 687.93 acres of government land and 1,031.85 acres private land. It has invested about Rs 765.46 crore in the project so far.

The land requirement of ArcelorMittal, which is planning to set up a 12-million-tonne greenfield steel project at Patna tehsil in Keonjhar district, has been reassessed at 7,750 acres. The company had sought 8,000 acres in the MoU. It has applied for 7,770 acres and has invested about Rs 50 crore for the project.

Similarly, the land requirement of Uttam Galva Steels, which is setting up a three-million-tonne steel project at Bistapal, has been reduced by 250 acres. While the MoU provided for allotment of 2,400 acres, Ipicol has reassessed this at 2,150 acres. The company applied for 2,146 acres and has been allotted 27.81 acres so far. The company has invested about Rs 35 crore for the project.

The three-million-tonne steel project planned by Sterlite Iron and Steel at Palasponga will have to manage with 1,000 acres less land than what was provided in the MoU. The company’s land requirement has been re-assessed at 2,400 acres. The company had applied for 3,378 acres, though has not been allotted any land so far.

The estimate of land needed by Bhushan Steel for its six-million-tonne per annum steel project at Meramundali in Dhenkanal district has been reduced by 600 acres. Though the company was to be provided 2,000 acres according to the MoU, Ipicol has reassessed the requirement at 1,400 acres. Bhushan Steel had applied for 1,994 acres and has been allotted 1,620 acres. It has invested Rs 5,000 crore in the project.

Following is from Dharitri.

Following is excerpted from a report in tathya.in. The various projects that were cleared are:

• A 12 MTPA Greenfield steel mill at Astaranga in Puri district by Navayug Steels Limited with an investment of Rs.34,000 crore. Linkage for iron ore has not been covered in the proposed mega project. The Navayug Group is setting up a port in Astaranga with an investment of Rs.6000 crore and a 2640 mw mega thermal power plant with an investment of Rs.11200 crore in Astaranga.
• Bhusan Steels Limited (BSL), which is setting up a 3.10 MTPA steel mill in Meramundali in Dhenkanal was allowed to expand it’s capacity to produce 9 mtpa with an additional investment of Rs.20,804 crore.
• Reliable Sponge’s proposal to set up a 0.25 MTPA steel plant along with a 24 mw captive power plant having a total investment of Rs.227.13 crore was cleared by the Authority.
• Emami Paper Mills Limited (EPML) proposal for a 1.32 lakh ton per annum Newsprint unit along with a co-generation power plant for an investment of Rs.500 crore was cleared.  EPML has established a paper mill at Balasore in 1982 and the new plant will come up in the same area. 
• Purvi Bharat Paper & Power (PBPP) has proposed for a 33,000 TPA writing & printing paper mill at Choudwar in Cuttack district with an investment of Rs.90.50 crore.
• The proposal to set up 5 mw solar park near Bhubaneswar with an investment of Rs.125 crore by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) received clearance of the Authority.
• In total, the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) on 17 March cleared the proposed investment of Rs.55,650 crore in 6 projects.

Some land acquisition numbers:

• Total: 61,769.527 acres
• Coastal: 15,536.153 acres
  • Ganjam: 3229.815 acres (top)
  • Baleswar: 347.643 acres (bottom)
• Naupada: 11,816.27 acres since 2000 (top)
• Kalahandi: 6,163.77 acres (2nd)
• Mayurbhanj: 6113.78 acres (3rd)
• Malkangiri: 3.65 acres (bottom)
• IDCO indsutrial land acquistion in last 3 years for 58 industries
  • 4778 acres govt. land
  • 6532 acres private land

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard. (Thanks to Deba Nayak for the tip.)

MindTree Consulting is planning to set up a centre in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, that will house 5,000 staff, a senior company official told NewsWire18 today.

“We have already acquired the land for the Bhubaneswar centre and I expect it to be operational by the end of 2008,” he said.

He said the company will keep adding to its manpower at the rate it has been doing so far, provided there is no slowdown in the business.

Bangalore-based MindTree currently has a staff count of over 5,000, mostly at its Bangalore centre.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.

The Orissa government has given administrative sanction for acquiring land at Patana tehsil in Kenojhar district for Arcelor-Mittal’s proposed 12 million tons per annum steel plant.

The company … has already deposited Rs 4.03 crore with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDCO) as processing fee for phase-I land acquisition.

The government has also appointed a nodal officer to oversee land acquisition process and other issues concerning the company’s greenfield project, said Steel and Mines Minister Padmanabha Behera.

Arcelor-Mittal is understood to have sought nearly 8,000 acres of land for the purpose and the state is believed to have agreed to the request.

The government has, however, cleared acquisition of only 1,224 acre of land spread over three villages like Angikala, Baradangua and Bhrungaraj under Patana tehsil in the first phase of land acquisition.

The 1,224 acres demarcated for the first phase acquisition comprised 431 acres of government land and 739 acres belonging to private owners.

While the government had fixed price per acre of state land at Rs two lakh, it was yet to decide cost of private land which would be fixed according to rehabilitation and resettlement policy.

Following are extracted from a report in the Pioneer.

• the State Commerce and Transport Department, in its sanction order-29753, dated May 30, 1970, had allotted 3, 793.21 acres in the first phase and 2285.23 acres in the second phase to the Paradip Port Project. Most of the lands were obtained from Sandhakuda, Bijayachandrapur, Balijhari and Bhitaragara villages, under Kujang Tehsil. According to the official sources, about 6,889 acres of land were supplied to the Paradip Port Trust.
• The State Government had provided 62.19 acres of land to the Paradeep Phosphate Ltd, which is a fertiliser plant that started its project in 1982. The PPL had acquired 405 acres of private lands from Bhitaragada village on its own.
• … in Paradeep-Cuttack railway line 137 acres of land were acquired from the Bhitaragada village.
• Kujang Tehsil had about 1,500 acres of Government land in the Musadiha area that was provided to the Oswal Fertiliser Plant in the year 1995-96. The plant had also purchased about 500 acres of private land from the local people.
• … in 2000 Indian Oil Corporation had purchased 3,300 acres of private land from the local people of 17 villages for its refinery project, which was to be set up on the outskirts of Paradip but the project is yet to come.
• for much-hyped Haridaspur-Paradip Railway Project, widening of the NH-5 and recent expansion of Cuttack-Paradip State Highway, thousands of acres of both Government and private lands have been acquired from Kujang Tehsil.
• Essar, the 6 million tonnes steel plant project, moves for the land acquisition in Paradip and the project needs about 1,950 acres of land. The State Government has already given 350 acres of land to the plant. It will procure the remaining required land from private land.
• Posco has shown a demand of about 4,004 acres of land in Dhinkia, Gadakujang and Nuagaon villages for its steel plant and port project. The State Government has given assurance and has provided Posco most of the encroached Government and forestlands. The rest of the required land would be purchased from private landowners.

Following is an excerpt from Pioneer on this.

The Forum stated that the land requirement of South-Korean steel maker Posco India Ltd has 4,004 acres, including around 3,566 acres of Government land, for their proposed 12 million ton steel plant at Paradip; based on all weather port, SEZ status as well as Finex process for production process. On the other hand, MSIL had shown a total requirement of 8,750 acres, including 4, 469.79 acres of Government land, for their 12 million ton proposed steel complex at Patna in Keonjhar district. Dastur and Co is yet to submit the post- DPR.

Former Wing Commander Kiran Sankar Behera and Sudershan Pattnaik of KCF pointed out the contrast between the land requirements shown by Essar, JSPL, Sterlite (Vedanta Group) and Uttam Galva for their proposed steel complexes at Paradip, Angul and Sadar Sub-division of Keonjhar district and that of Posco.

For instance, Uttam Galva Steel Limited (UGSL) had shown a land requirement of 2,130 acres for their 3-million-tonne projects like Vedanta, Essar and Jindal whose complexes are to come up at Keonjhar, Paradip and Angul.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Ajit Tripathy asked the MSIL Group to release their land requirement.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed sources informed that Dastur and Co had submitted a detailed tech-economic feasibility study, in which the exact requirements of land for steel, sponge and pig iron per metric tonne were clearly mentioned, in accordance with the standards fixed by the State Government, a few months back.

Observers maintained that in the present day production process employs high technology, mostly latest Chinese technology. For cost-effective and qualitative management, the best option is to have very less amount of land for keeping daily inventory and for waste disposal at the proposed site. This will prove time friendly for both the State and the companies.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Though the State Government has not been successful so far to acquire lands for mega industries like Posco and Arcelor- Mittal, it has been able to acquire lands for the upcoming Dhamra Port. The Port will cater to demands of the industries coming up in the Kalinga Nagar area in Jajpur district.

… Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal said the Government had so far acquired 2,033.47 acres of land from three tehsils for Dhamra port. Under Chandbali tehsil, Government has acquired 954.74 acres of land. It has also acquired 564.64 acres of land in Tihiri and 517.27 acres in Bhadrak tehsil. 1,510 people have already got the compensation for giving their land for the port. Another, 683 people will get compensation.

The Port Authority has so far given Rs 56 crore to the district administration for the purpose of giving compensation against land acquisition.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Mittal Steel India, which is in the process of readying its rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) package for its 12 million tonne Orissa project, will consider issue of shares and land-for-land as part of its compensation to land-losers.

Sanak Mishra, chief executive officer, Mittal Steel India said, “The Orissa government’s R&R policy includes issue of shares as a means of compensation and if the people want it, we will do it. But that will happen at the implementation stage and we have to see the legal standpoint and the mechanism.”

Mittal Steel hopes to finalise the draft R&R package and make presentations to the Orissa government by month end. “If the Orissa government wants to incorporate something, we will look into it.”

The state government’s policy mentions convertible preference share as a compensation option. It says that at the option of the displaced family and subject to the provisions of relevant laws in force, the project authority could issue convertible preference shares or secured bonds up to a maximum of 50 per cent out of one-time cash assistance.

“There were also other physical issues being considered like alternative land for the displaced people. We will, however, have to assess how much land is required,” said Mishra.

… After finalising the scheme in consultation with the state government, Mittal Steel plans to embark on a communication programme with the land-losers.

The project site is a mix of government and private land. The 12 million steel plant at
Keonjhar would require around 8,000 acres, which includes 1,000 acres for the captive power plant and 1,000 acres for the township.

Mittal Steel is also in dialogue with the Orissa for iron ore mines. Various options are being explored, including arrangement with the Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC), a state-owned mining corporation.

“Talks are at an exploratory stage and it was too premature to talk about it. An arrangement with OMC could enable Mittal Steel to go through captive iron ore mine allocation process, which was one of the stumbling blocks for the company’s Jharkhand project,” Mishra added. Mittal Steel requires around 600 million tonnes of iron ore over a 30-year period for its steel plant.

Business standard reports that Posco near Paradip in Orissa has received a major boost with people of two grampachayats, out of three panchayats affected by the project, writing to the district collector pledging their support to the project. Excerpts:

“For its steel project, Posco had sought 4,004 acres of land spreading over three panchayats — Nuagoan, Gada Kujanga and Dhinkia. Of the total land, 3,566 acres are government land while the remaining 438 acres are privately owned.

However, the company was unable to acquire land due to stiff opposition by the local people to the project even after lapse of two years of signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government in June 2005 and issue of 4/1 notification for land acquisition in May 2006.

The recent submission by the village committees of Nuagaon and Gada Kujanga to the Jagatsinghpur district collector, pledging their support to the project, has brightened up the prospect of its establishment, pointed out an official of the district administration.

The two panchayats account for 238 acres, out of 438 acres of private land slated to be acquired for the project. Similarly, of the 471 families likely to be displaced by the project, 275 families belong to these panchayats.

Further boosting up the company’s moral 40 betel vine owners, who are among the most affected villagers, have recently surrendered their betel vines and accepted compensation while 250-300 others are waiting to surrender their vines.

In their letters, the respective village committees have expressed their willingness to part with land for the project and offered their participation in the peripheral development work to be undertaken by the government, the sources added.

However, the Dhinkia panchayat, which is the nerve centre of anti-Posco movement, is yet to reconcile though fissures have appeared in stitching up a united front by the people of this panchayat against the company. Seventy-two families from Patna village under Dhinkia gram panchayat have offered their land to the project.

Similarly, the people of Gobindpur village under this gram panchayat pledged their support to the project in September 2007, and invited the district collector to visit them to discussion on land acquisition and compensation packages.

The growing support for the Posco plant was further demonstrated when over 5,000 people attended a rally and public meeting under the leadership of local MLA and senior BJD leader Damodar Rout at Balitutha, the entry point to the troubled site on November 1.

This was the first show of strength by the pro-project groups whose support to the project was often muted by the vocal and often violent opposition mounted the anti-project brigade in the area. To counter the pro-Posco rally, the project opponents had organised a demonstration just across the Balitutha bridge. However, they were hugely outnumbered with about 1,000 people participating in it.

But the leaders of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), spearheading the agitation against the proposed plant, are willing to accept defeat just on the basis of this headcount.

Most of the people who participated in the pro-Posco rally were outsiders who were transported to the venue by the ruling party, says Abhaya Sahoo, the president of PPSS.

“We will continue our fight and not allow the company to set up its plant here,” he added.“

This looks positive.
Just to summarize

• GadaKujang and Nuagaon are supporting the project.
• Some villages in Dhinkia Panchayat seem to be favouring POSCO like Patna village and Gobindpur village.
• 5000 people supported POSCO in the rally, but , 1000 went against it.
• 72 families from Patna village have already offered land.
• This was the first show of strength by the pro-project groups whose support to the project was often muted by the vocal and often violent opposition mounted the anti-project brigade in the area

Daily Pioneer reporter Kahnu Nanda reports that situation is turning in favour of POSCO in the Kujang Block. The Article is reproduced below:

“Days after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik asserted that the mega greenfield steel plant by South Korean steel major Posco will be established at Kujang and that construction work would start from April 1, 2008, Posco has reiterated its commitment to the project.

An overwhelming section of people living in the proposed project site areas, including representatives of several political parties, social activists and local senior citizens, are moving fast to garner support for the project’s implementation.

Reports indicate that several meetings and campaigning has been held in project site at village level in the past week in a bid to woo the locals in the project’s favour.

Different project sympathisers have been organising these pro-Posco meetings and Ersama MLA and former Minister Damodar Rout has proposed to organise a mass public meeting in Balitutha Hat on October 27 just at a stone’s throw distance from the project opponents’ road block over Balitutha Bridge since September 24.

Sources said that a pro- Posco meeting was organised under the leadership of former PS member Jiban Lal Behera and the meeting was attended by most of habitants and discussed the Posco issues at length.

The senior villagers, attending the meeting too opined setting up of the project and unanimously resolve requesting the Posco authorities to reopen its closed Kujang office immediately.

Meanwhile, Ranjan Das a social activist and native of Polang, an affected village for the project, arranged a meeting in village on Tuesday in a move to garner support for Posco.

The Chief Minister’s endeavours to have a dialogue with project opposition groups had described a salutary effort while the villagers emphasised that the Posco authorities need to directly interact with the affected people for land acquisitions, Askhya Das, a villager revealed.

The political atmosphere in the project sites of Gadakujang, Dhinkia, Nuagaon, Chatua, Balitutha and Bamadeipur villages saw a startling incident on Tuesday when one Dhruba Charana Muduli, a social activist had called an all party meeting in Gadakujanga to discuss the Posco stalemate.

The meeting was attended by most of the members of different political parties of the locality excluding Leftists.

In the meeting a decision was taken to form an all party co ordination committee taking members from different political parties to hold dialogue with the State Government, the district administration and the Posco authorities to sort out the project obstacles, informed a member of a major political party.

Meanwhile, sources said that a similar type of meeting had been organised in Govindpur village under the leadership of Nirvay Samantray and project sympathiser Tamil Pradhan had conducted a meting in his Nuagaon village on Wednesday.

However, reports said that most of Posco supported leaders at the proposed project site villages have been organising meetings and campaigning to bring a pro attitude since the Chief Minister and Posco agreed for the project inception last week.

Ersama legislator Damodar Rout ,who was keeping distance from Posco related issues earlier has started organising mass contact campaigning with a message against anti -Posco sentiments in project site villages.

However, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) who is spearheading the anti-Posco movement since one year vowed to oppose the project tooth to nail and refused to act on the Chief Minister’s desire of a dialogue.

According to them the project would wipe out 11 villages and affect around 20,000 habitants therefore no industry should not be set up at the cost of agricultural lands that threatens to take away the livelihood of people.

Abhaya Sahoo, PPSS chairman slammed the State Government for being insensible towards the affected locals, and also threatened of not giving one inch of land for the Posco project. He blamed the local leaders for organising pro Posco meetings in their areas under the influence and getting financial supports from Posco.”

The following is extracted from an ndtvprofit.com report.

• The state government, Posco agreed to April 1 deadline as the date was significant for both Orissa and the steel major. It is observed as ‘Utkal Divas’ and also the anniversary of Posco, Lee said.
• During the discussion, Patnaik pointed out that 512 acres of government land had already been sanctioned to Posco, while 3,000 acres of forest land was cleared by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), official sources said.

  Posco required 4,004 acres near Paradip to set up its proposed 12 mtpa capacity steel mill which had been facing opposition from the local people. “Though land was ready for handover to Posco, this could not be done in the face of stiff opposition from the local people,” they said.

• Patnaik said the state government would complete hearing of all applications for Khandadhar mines in Sundargarh district by November, sources said.

  Orissa government had already recommended the name of the South Korean company for the Prospecting Licence (PL), they said.

• Patnaik urged Lee to immediately commence construction of transit accommodation for the displaced people and a training center for imparting technical education to local youths so that they could be provided with jobs in future.

Rediff reports that the new SEZ policy has been announced by the Govt.

Excerpts”

The National Policy on Rehabilitation and Resettlement, 2007, which was cleared at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, provides for land-for-land compensation, besides preference to affected families for jobs in projects coming up on their plots.”“The new policy seeks to make those entitled for compensation stakeholders in development by allowing them to take up to 20 per cent of the amount in the form of shares if the acquiring entity is authorised to issue these instruments.

“With prior approval of the government, this proportion can be as high as 50 per cent of the rehabilitation grant and compensation amount,” the Rural Development Ministry said.

The policy discourages speculative transactions of land acquired for public purposes. As a relief for developers, 30 per cent land can be compulsorily acquired by states for the promoters while the rest has to be bought by them.”

Reliance has welcomed this policy. It remains to be seen what implications this has on POSCO which wants SEZ status for it’s project.

The Hindu reported today that the chief representative of PRI(Posco Research Institute) has made some adverse comments on the progress of MOUs in Orissa.

Taking excerpts mentioned in the report:

“Chief Representative of PRI Chang-ho Kwag said the social infrastructure of the State was not proper to absorb mega projects. “Attitude and mindset of State Government and people towards projects need to be changed. Education of people to understand the real cost benefit of industrial project was necessary in which the state government has a big role,” Mr. Kwag said.“West Bengal can be a good example. Why is every good project taking shape in West Bengal? I think the State Government played a key role there,” he said.

Despite being a State governed by Left parties, the State adopted itself in post-liberalisation era, the PRI Director said.

All the coastal states of India showed healthy GDP growth while Orissa lagged with 3.5 per cent rate growth compared to West Bengal’s nearly 6 per cent, he said.

“The Government needs to set up service mechanism for expediting mega projects,” Mr. Kwag said. The Posco Research Institute said Chinese government had engaged two to three of its personnel for one big project so that they could take care of different processes and ensure project getting converted into reality.“

The Head of PRI must understand that Orissa is not a communist country like China. Where if requirements are provided by companies, local protests are crushed using an Iron hand and value propositions are ignored completely. Rehabilitation is a complicated process.

It is surprising to note, that , the head of PRI has mentioned that most projects are coming up in West Bengal. Do they actually think, that they would get a captive port in West bengal and also land at such cheap rates which is being provided to them in Orissa.

Also, they might actually mention which big projects are coming to West Bengal. In West Bengal land acquisition is easier since, the writ of the local communist runs in every block. Even then a Nandigram has happenned there.

Perhaps, he should see the amount if strikes that happen in West bengal. A bandh(strike) is a regular feature of life in the state. If this is considered business friendly then we have some new rules for business.

The truth of the matter is that, Orissa has been second fastest in implementation of MOUs in the country.

Let it be noted ,that , it is a combination of land and accesibility to a sea-port which makes Orissa an attractive destination.

Perhaps, the head of PRI is not aware that according to a World Bank report, Orissa is supposed to be the fastest place to start a Business among all states in India.

Perhaps, some of the statements can be reconsidered.

See http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070723/asp/nation/story_8094453.asp. (Thanks to Manoj Padhi and Orissatoday for the pointer.)