Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, April 9: The Centre has rejected the state government’s plea to grant prospecting licence (PL) for Khandadhar mines to Korean steel giant Posco for its proposed $12billion mega steel plant near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur.
“The Centre has rejected our request to grant prospecting licence to Posco,” said steel and mines minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick here Thursday.
He said, “Though the state government has asked the Centre to consider Posco as a special case, the Centre made it clear that the steel company, like others, will have to take part in the open auction if it wanted to get Khandadhar or any other mine.”
Asked if the state government would urge the Centre to reconsider its decision, the steel minister said a decision on this would be taken only after getting to know the basis on which the Centre took the decision.
Earlier, the Centre had made it clear that as per the newly amended MMDR Act 2015, everyone will have to participate in the auction in order to get mines. There is no other way, it had stressed.
Though Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had written a letter to the Centre some time ago urging it to consider the matter, the Centre made it clear that it cannot concede the request for exempting Posco from auction under the provisions of the new MMDR Act, source said.
Notably, the company was previously promised allotment of Khandadhar mines by the state government. It was in this context that the Chief Minister made a request to the Centre. With the Centre rejecting the state government’s request, Posco will now require to bid in the upcoming auction to get an iron ore mine for its mega project in Orissa — publicised as one of the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country.
