Posco announces compensation package

The South Korean steel major would pay Rs 17 lakh per acre of agricultural land while the price of area under betel vine was fixed at Rs 11.5 lakh per acre, official sources said.

Agreeing to pay compensation for government land encroached by villagers, the steel major also offered a monthly allowance of Rs 2,250 for people cultivating betel vines at the proposed plant site, the sources said.

The company promised to provide a job to one member of every displaced families according to their educational qualification, the sources said.

This apart, the company also announced Rs 2 lakh per acre used for prawn ponds, according to the new rehabilitation package announced at the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) meeting held here, the sources said.

To make the package attractive, the steel major also committed that it would provide a three-room pucca house built on 10 decimal of land with a cowshed to each displaced family.

Each displaced family would also be provided Rs 5,000 as transport cost. The RPDAC is meeting at Jagatsinghpur this evening to finalise rehabilitation package for the people to be affected by Posco project," Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had said earlier in the day after reviewing the progress of the Posco project.