Political parties spar over Posco vacating Bhubaneswar office

BHUBANESWAR: Political parties today took potshots at each other following reports that Posco has decided to put its Rs 52,000-crore steel project in Odisha on hold.

Both Congress and BJP held the Naveen Patnaik government responsible for non-implementation of the mega steel project even after 10 years of inking of an MoU.

Ruling BJD, on the other hand, said the Opposition had no moral right to blame the state government over the issue as they delayed environmental clearance to the project when in power.

State Industries Minister Debi Prasad Mishra said no official communication has been received from the South Korean steel major in this regard.

He said "Congress and BJP were opposing the project since its inception. Therefore, the Opposition has no moral right to blame the state government for it."

"The previous UPA government had delayed granting of environmental clearance to Posco project," he said.

Mishra said, "I understand from the news reports that Posco has decided to put its Odisha project on hold and is not withdrawing from the state."

Meanwhile, talking to reporters, State Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan said, "I hold the state government totally responsible for non-implementation of the Posco project. The BJD government has played with the lives and livelihood of people who lost their land, cash crops... in the name of implementation of the Posco project."

He attributed the development to the state government's "inefficiency" and accused the BJD government of misleading people in the name of industrialisation.

Senior Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik said the project could not materialise because the state government selected a wrong site. "Officers selected the project site without considering the local situation," he said.

BJP leader Suresh Pujari questioned the BJD government's sincerity towards the project.

"What was the state government doing in the last 10 years? There is no point in blaming the MMDR Act which came into force only this year," he said.

Posco-India has written to the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) stating that it would vacate the office on the fifth floor of Fortune Towers, sources said.