BJD, Oppn trade barbs over Posco project

The ruling BJD in Odisha and the opposition Congress and the BJP on Tuesday exchanged barbs over South Korean steel major Posco’s decision not to construct a guest house and residence for its managing director.

Many see the development as the first step by Posco to completely pull out from the multi-crore Odisha project. The company declared in January that it was freezing the Odisha steel plant project.

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee chief Prasad Harichandan said the “incompetence” of the state government has thrown the project into uncertainty, with BJD’s former ally BJP also slamming the Patnaik government on similar lines.

The government was nonetheless confident about saving the project with the state industry minister Debi Mishra saying the state had approached the central government to convene a high-level meeting to resolve the Posco issue.

During his recent visit to Delhi, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had asked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to convene a tripartite meeting of Posco representatives, the Centre and the state government to iron out the differences and pave  way for the project.