Much to the chagrin of the Orissa government, the centre has widened the ambit of the Meena Gupta panel looking into Korean giant POSCO’s steel project in Orissa by asking it to review the compliance status of the Environmental Protect ion Act at the site.

However, with the new mandates at its disposal, the deadline for the four member panel headed by the ex environment secretary to submit its report to the Environment Ministry has been revised from August 28 to September 28.

The team had on Sunday completed its three day assessment of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in the area chosen for the proposed integrated steel plant of POSCO India Private Ltd in the state.

The panel has visited several villages and met the stakeholders concerned to assess the compliance of the state government and the project developers with the FRA, FCA as well as Environment Protection Act and the Coastal Zone Regulatory norms as directed by the environment ministry.

The move comes just a couple of days after Mr Patnaik met the prime minister and told reporters that he has been assured of a speedy clearance to the INR 54,000 crore project in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district as it involves the country’s largest foreign direct investment.

(Sourced from PTI)