Bhubaneswar, May 29: The Orissa government has asked South Korean steel giant Posco to finalise a date for signing the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for its 12-million-tonne steel plant by June 22.

State steel and mines minister Padmanabha Behera said a delegation from the Centre was likely to visit the state soon to discuss the project. Officials from the Centre would be present when the MoU is signed, he added.

Posco president Chang Oh Kang, who had a final round of talks with chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday, has said the date will be finalised after he returns to South Korea. Sources said Posco will be allowed to export iron ore from Orissa and import an equal quantity from Brazil. The state government has already told Kang about this condition.

According to Kang, importing a certain quantity of ore and exporting an equal tonnage from Orissa was inevitable to produce better-quality steel. Posco claimed that the Orissa ore contains high percentage of alumina.

However, despite the government and Posco clearing the way for the MoU, the controversy over the deal refuses to die down. Opposition Congress MLA Lalatendu Mohapatra has demanded a special session of the state Assembly to debate the project to avert a repeat of the Tangarpada chromite mining issue and the Vedanta Alumina deal, both of which are stuck in courts.

In a letter to Patnaik, Mohapatra said his party had reasons to worry as the state government had gone out of its way to accommodate Vedanta Alumina in the Lanjigarh area of Kalahandi district.

Expressing concern over reports that the Orissa government is desperate to woo Posco in “total disregard of the state’s interest”, the Opposition legislator posed a number of questions and expected answers before the deal was finalised.

He sought clarification regarding the legality of FDI in mining. He has also wanted to know the laws and regulations under which the government was inviting the Korean firm to invest in the state and whether such arrangements had been approved by the Assembly and cabinet.