CPI seeks reversal of green nod to Posco

The Communist Party of India on Saturday sought reversal of the environmental clearance granted to South Korean giant Posco’s steel plant in Odisha, asking the government not to “ride rough-shod” over the recommendations of the National Green Tribunal and the “popular resistance” against the project.

“The government should take note of the popular resistance and also the opposition of the National Green Tribunal under the Forest Conservation Act. It should not ride roughshod over all this opposition in the name of development,” the party’s Central Secretariat said in a statement.

Strongly opposing the green signal granted by the Environment Ministry to the eight million tonne per annum steel plant project, it demanded the reversal of the nod saying, “We are all for development with people’s consent.”

It said the clearance was given “after Veerappa Moily, the hit-man of the corporates now installed as the Environment Minister, has taken a U-turn overturning the earlier decision of the Ministry.”

The CPI alleged that the decision was taken “by a sleight of hand, de-linking the proposals of “captive port” and “mining” of iron ore from the proposal of the steel plant. It is well known that the original proposal at Posco was for an integrated project.”