POSCO and Orissa government yet to renew MoU on steel plant

Friday, 04 Feb 2011

Six months after the expiry of the MoU between POSCO and the Orissa government for setting up a 12 million tonne per annum steel plant, the South Korean major is yet to reply certain queries made by the state government for its renewal.

Mr BK Patnaik state chief secretary told reporters that "Certain queries have been made to POSCO India. But it is yet to respond. Once it is received, there should be no problem in renewing the MoU.”

Mr Raghunath Mohanty steel and mines minister said that "We will renew the MoU with POSCO at appropriate time.”

Official sources said that the tenure of the five year MoU with the South Korean steel major lapsed on June 21, 2010 adding that the proposed project to set up a mega steel plant near Paradip had failed to make much headway.

Sources said POSCO India is reluctant to accept any new clause in the renewed MoU suggested by the state government. It added that the state government, which has decided to reserve jobs for local people in all mega projects, wanted it to be incorporated in the fresh MoU.

According to the government's new job reservation policy, all industries setting up units in the state would provide at least 90% jobs in unskilled category to local people including the families affected by project and up to 60% jobs in semi skilled category. Similarly, 30% of the jobs need to go to local people of the state in supervisor and managerial cadre. However, senior executive posts could be filled from outside the state.

The MoU issue was raised after the Centre on January 31 gave conditional clearance to the POSCO project.(sourced from PTI)

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