A four member central panel on Tuesday visited POSCO's proposed port site near Paradip town in Orissa to examine various alleged violations.

The team, headed by former union environment secretary Ms Meena Gupta visited the Jatadhari river mouth in Jagatsinghpur district after the union government Aug 27 widened the panel's scope of investigation relating to the project.

The members visited Jatadhari River mouth to assess its compliance with the environmental protection act, coastal regulation zone act and other clearances granted to it.

Besides, they also reviewed its compliance with statutory provisions, approvals, clearances and permissions under various statutes, rules and notifications.

The panel earlier discussed with state forest and environment department officials on alleged violations of the Forest Rights Act by the project.

The environment and forest ministry set up the Meena Gupta panel in July after the Orissa government opposed the report by a previous panel led by National Advisory Council member and former bureaucrat Mr NC Saxena. The panel led by Mr Saxena recommended stoppage of all work at the project site pointing to various violations including of the Forest Rights Act.

The South Korean firm POSCO had signed a deal with the Orissa government in 2005 to set up the project near the port town of Paradip, some 100 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, by 2016 with an investment of about USD 12 billion. POSCO requires about 4,004 acres, mostly government land, for the project. Of the area identified, 2,900 acres is forest land.

(Sourced from IANS)