Local villagers on Saturday demanded scrapping of integrated steel, cement and captive power plant proposed by Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Utkal Steel Limited in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district.
The project is proposed to come up on land which was previously acquired for the steel project of South Korean steel major, POSCO. After the South Korean steel company shelved its project, the State government brought entire land parcel under its land bank scheme.
“This is illegal. The State government should have returned the land to people as no project could be set up within five years of its acquisition. The new project will jeopardise livelihood of locals,” said Manorama Khatua, a villager.
Local residents from Dhinkia and Gobindpur area in Jagatsinghpur district said they would fight tooth and nail to stop the setting up of polluting industrial units near their village.
Activists demanded immediate cancellation of two public hearings scheduled for November 22.
“The projects for which the public hearings are proposed are integrated steel pant of 13.2 MTPA crude steel, 10 MTPA cement grinding unit and 900 megawatt captive power plant. All weather multi-cargo greenfield jetties for handling capacity of 52 MTPA at Jatadhari has also been proposed,” said Prafulla Samantara, President of Lokshakti Abhiyan here on Saturday.
“Integrated and inter-linked projects having multi sectoral components should prepare a common environment impact assessment report, covering impact of each of the component in comprehensive manner after obtaining terms of reference from each of the respective sectoral expert appraisal committees. However, no such common EIA has been prepared for the project,” Mr. Samantara said.
The activist alleged, “JSW Utkal Steel has selectively clubbed and broken up components of an integrated project that allows them to bypass detailed scrutiny and comprehensive assessment by all experts. It misleads the public by presenting the EIA only for two projects and therefore requiring only two public hearings.”
He demanded cancellation of the project on the ground of providing false and misleading data.
