The proposed Posco site. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 24: The Union ministry of forest and environment (MoEF) today indicated that it would take a final call on Posco, the world’s third-largest steel maker’s Rs 52,000crore project near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district by the month end.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s assurance of a decision on the fate of the much-delayed project, arguably the biggest FDI of the country, comes in the wake of three MoEF panels, including the forest advisory committee (FAC), submitting their reports to the ministry on the allegations of violation of green laws by the project, which requires the diversion of 1,253.225 hectares of forest land. The South Korean government, too, has been pushing for the 12million-tonne project aggressively.

The project, for which the company had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the state government in 2005, has been dogged by controversies right from the beginning. It also continues to face a people’s movement in the area led by the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS).

With environmental activists alleging violation of Forest Rights Act (FRA) in the project area, the MoEF set up two different committees last year to look into the issue. Both the committees confirmed the allegations but it was the report of the second panel led by former IAS officer Meena Gupta which triggered a major controversy drawing battle lines between the MoEF and the state government.

The four-member Meena Gupta committee report submitted last October was a split verdict but the members were unanimous on the key issue of FRA violation and suggested that the entire exercise of settling claims of the people in the project area under the Act should be conducted afresh. The issues where the committee’s chairperson differed from its three other members pertained mainly to the captive port envisaged by the company at Jatadhari river mouth adjoining the project site.

Though all work at the project site came to a halt in the wake of the report, the state government remained defiant sticking to its earlier stand that no FRA violation had been committed in the area. The state government officials reiterated this stand even during the hearing of the FAC in New Delhi.