POSCO land acquisition compensation package; my concerns and suggestions
Jagatsinghpur, Odisha govt. action, Odisha govt. Inaction, POSCO, South Korea, Steel Comments Off on POSCO land acquisition compensation package; my concerns and suggestionsFollowing is from a report in Economic Times.
What’s in it for the locals?
Asit Swain, who lives in Nawagaam, one of the affected panchayats, told ET that the compensation package has been finalised. Farmers will get Rs 11,500 for every decimal (one-tenth of an acre) of betel vine plantations and Rs 18 lakh for every acre where two crops can be grown in a year.
Those growing cashew or farming prawns on government land (without land titles) will get Rs 2 lakh per acre. As for the landless,they will get Rs 2,250 per month till they find employment. They will also get a sum, added Swain, equal to a fifth of what the betel vine cultivators and farmers get.
In addition, two months ago, Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa (Ipicol) recommended a new clause be added to the MoU stipulating that 90% of the unskilled and semiskilled workers, 60% of the skilled workers and 30% of the managerial posts in the project be hired from the local community.
What’s in it for Posco?
Clearly, the project continues to be hugely lucrative for Posco, which is why the company is staying on despite all these delays. The company will get a guaranteed supply of iron ore for at least 30 years, a commodity, whose prices have soared 43% since the beginning of last year.
From recent news that are coming out (see for example, http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/anti-posco-brigade-hit-hard-by-defectionvillagers/434888/ ) it seems like the POSCO project will now sail through.
With that assumption, I suggest that the government take better care of the people that are being displaced and keeps it focus on the "From mineral resources to Human resources" theme.
To take better care of the displaced people:
(a) the government must have a mechanism to ensure that the compensation paid to the people is not blown away in a year or 2 and the displaced people have nothing to fall back on. Some approaches such as annuity payments for part of the compensation and making the people a shareholder of the plant with specialized shares, which can not be sold immediately, need to be considered. In addition the R & R must include the education of all kids (of displaced people) in decent schools (DAV type), similar to what Vedanta University Project was/is(?) doing in Puri.
To address the "mineral resources to Human resources" goal:
(b) the government must insist that POSCO establish in Odisha a significant branch (or a similar institute) of its top ranked (in research) university POSTECH of S. Korea. This is the least they can and should do for being assured of raw minerals at a low low price.
(c) the government must insist that POSCO establish more of its ancillaries in Odisha itself rather than in other states.