PARADIP: The National Green Tribunal has directed State Government to stop construction of boundary wall around the 2,700 acres of land that was acquired for Posco steel project.After the Korean steel major withdrew its project from Paradip, the State Government had planned to hand over the same patch of land to JSW Steel Limited of Jindal Group that had proposed construction of a steel plant at the same site.
Subsequently, the State-level single window clearance authority (SLSWCA) had recommended two project proposals of JSW Group, including the steel project, to the high-level clearance authority (HLCA) headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in 2016. The State Government had then decided to hand over the 2,700 acres of land to JSW. After this decision, the IDCO expedited construction of boundary wall around the land to prevent encroachments.
The wall would have been constructed covering villages of Nuagaon, Gobindapur, Polanga, Gadakujanga and Baynalkanda villages at an estimated cost of `13 crore. Of the total 18-km of land on which wall was to come up, construction on 2 km was completed by January this year.
However, one Bhamarbar Das of Govindpur had filed a writ petition in the NGT on November 6 last year demanding stopping of construction of boundary wall and felling of trees by IDCO, alleging that this was being done in violation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and the Forest (Conservation) Act. He also stated that IDCO had arbitrarily diverted the forest land for non-forest purposes. Hearing the petition last week, chairperson of NGT Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the State Government to stop construction of boundary wall.