ET reported that for steel major POSCO it is like Samuel Beckett’s cryptic tragicomedy “Waiting for Godot” with the Orissa government taking time to renew the memorandum of understanding signed with the South Korean giant.

According to sources, the government is carefully examining certain legal aspects that are likely to stand in the way of immediate renewal of the MoU. The government’s fear emanates from the fact that a small mistake in MoU renewal could provide fodder to opposition parties, human rights activists and others challenging it in the court of law and up the ante against the project.

Mr Naveen Patnaik chief minister of Orissa, indicating that immediate renewal of the document is not likely, told that “The MoU will be renewed in due course of time as per the rule and regulations.”

The MoU, which was signed on June 22nd 2005, expired last week after a gap of five years. Billed as the largest foreign direct investment proposal in the country so far, the POSCO project has failed to take off because of protests by the local inhabitants and party politicking.

The Congress, BJP, Rashtriya Janta Dal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Forward Bloc, CPI and CPI (M) are opposing the project on the ground of displacement. They are demanding for shifting of the project to some other location. The role of Congress in particular is peculiar. While the Congress led UPA government has lent its unstinted support to POSCO project, the party in the state has not lent its support to the Korean company apparently for political compulsion.

(Sourced from ET)