Posco issue: Orissa nods Rs 70-crore rehab package

The Orissa government on Friday announced a Rs 70-crore rehabilitation package for the 3,000 people who will be displaced by the steel plant being set up by South Korea’s Posco in Jagatsinghpur.

The Orissa government on Friday announced a Rs 70-crore rehabilitation package for the 3,000 people who will be displaced by the steel plant being set up by South Korea’s Posco in Jagatsinghpur.

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The package has fixed a compensation of Rs 17 lakh per acre of private land, Rs 11.50 lakh per acre for land under betel vine cultivation and Rs 2 lakh per acre for ponds used for prawn production. People who have encroached on government land will also receive compensation.

Further, each displaced family will be allotted a three-room pucca house with a cowshed and receive a Rs 5,000 relocation allowance. Larger or joint families will get bigger houses and those that don’t want new houses will be paid Rs 1.66 lakh.

The package — finalised on Thursday night at a meeting of the Rehabilitation & Peripheral Development Advisory Committee — comes amid a resistance movement by local residents.

“We hope the people will accept it,” said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.