Bhubaneswar, Jan 15 (IANS) The Orissa government says it will try to win the confidence of those opposed to South Korean steel major Posco’s proposed $12-billion project in the state’s Jagatsinghpur district.
The statement comes a day after four Posco officials were taken “hostage” by villagers protesting against the project, but were released after giving a written assurance they would not enter the project site in future.

“We have expedited the process (of appeasing locals) as the union forest and environment ministry has given the final clearance for acquiring forest land for the project,” said state Steel and Mines Secretary A.M.R. Dalwai.

“Now we will focus on finalising the resettlement and rehabilitation package,” Dalwai told IANS.

“Once that is finalised, it will be placed before the RPDAC for approval” he added.

RPDAC, or the Rehabilitation and Periphery Development Advisory Committee, has been constituted by the government to finalise various issues related to the project.

There has been local resistance to the project for some time, culminating in Thursday’s incident.

“We released them after the officials gave a written assurance they will not enter the project site any more,” said Pratap Paikray, spokesman for Anti Posco Samiti, an organisation opposed to the project.

According to the police, local villagers took the officials hostage when they were conducting some survey work near the project area.

Posco India’s general manager for external relations Simanta Mohanty denied this, saying the officials had gone to the area to distribute calendars among villagers.

Thursday’s was the first protest by local villagers after the central government last month cleared Posco’s land acquisition proposal for the project.

Posco, one of the world’s biggest steel makers, signed a deal with the state government in June 2005 to set up the plant near the port town of Paradip in the coastal Jagatsinghpur district, some 100 km from here, by 2016.

The steel maker requires about 4,004 acres for the project of which 2,900 acres are forest land. The project has been delayed over two years due to various reasons including local protest.

Locals say the project bringing the largest single foreign direct investment to India would displace over 20,000 people from around 15 villages and ruin their betel-leaf farming.

Posco discounts this. “Affected people identified by the government and under existing regulations will be provided with mitigation,” Mohanty told IANS.