The Orissa government has made it clear that the mega steel project proposed to be set by the South Korean major, Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO) near Paradip in coastal Jagatsinghpur district would not be shifted to another new site.

The project, the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country, has been facing stiff resistance from the local villagers. The prestigious Rs 51,000 crore project has already got delayed because of the ongoing agitation against it.

“The site has been selected after much scrutiny. We are committed to have the important project at the same site. There is no question of shifting the project to another site,” state Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal told the state assembly while responding to the Opposition’s demand that the POSCO project site should be changed.

Mr Samal said 90 per cent of the four thousand acres of land identified for the important project belongs to the government. Only ten per cent of the land is privately owned. Many of the villagers who would be displaced by the project have already agreed to accept the compensation package offered by the state government.

“The anti-Posco activists are rapidly losing their support base among the local villagers,” the minister claimed, adding that the government would also be providing compensation to the people had encroached the government land.

The revenue minister told the House that the government was not considering taking back its recommendation to provide SEZ status to the proposed steel project.

Earlier, members of the Congress-led Opposition demanded that the POSCO project be shifted to Gopalpur in southern Ganjam district.

According to them the Tatas had been allotted land in Gopalpur to set up their steel plant which they did not do. “As the Tatas have already withdrawn from the Gopalpur steel project, that land should be transferred to the POSCO,” leader of the opposition and former chief minister J B Patnaik said.