The views of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest panel on violation of Forest Right Act in the POSCO project site area is likely to further delay the land acquisition process and precipitate the problems for the South Korean steel major which has been facing uphill task in acquiring land for the project due to local protests.

The MoEF panel visited the POSCO project site villages and interacted with the villagers on implementation of the provisions of Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act 2006 in the area.

The mandate of the panel was to see if there was any violation in observing the norms regarding complete process of identification and settlement of rights under Forest Rights Act for the entire forest area proposed for diversion, getting the consent of tribal people or traditional slum dwellers through Gram Sabha and diversions of forest land for facilities managed by the government as required by section 3 (2) under FRA.

After interaction and field visit in Dhinkia, Mr Ashish Kothari a member of the committee, informed that there are no Scheduled Tribes in the area identified for the POSCO project, but FRA was not implemented and consent of forest dwellers was not taken by convening palli sabha or gram sabha though the villagers have been depending on forest land for their livelihood since 1930.

Stating that the district administration should not go for resurvey of the site and take any steps for land acquisition for the project at present, he said that the panel will urge MoEF to ensure that the land acquisition in the POSCO site is stopped till the completion of the process for implementation of FRA.

(Sourced from BS)