By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The Orissa government has reiterated that there were no tribal inhabitants or other traditional forest dwellers in the proposed site of the $12 billion Posco project, a senior official said Wednesday.
The government made the clarification in its reply to the union ministry of environment and forests, which was submitted April 8, B.P. Singh, special secretary of the state forest and environment department, told IANS.
The environment and forests ministry in January granted conditional clearance to the project, the biggest foreign direct investment in the country, to be built by the South Korean steel major in the district of Jagatsinghpur near the port town of Paradip, some 100 km from here.
While granting approval, the union ministry asked the state government to give a categorical assurance that no traditional forest dwellers are dependent on or cultivating land in the Posco project area.