Posco: Orissa govt to file plea in SC

State steel and mines secretary Manoj Ahuja said the state would appeal against the HC order,urging the apex court to consider Khandadhar as a notified mining area. The state would reason that it granted PL to Posco as a special case under the the Mining and Minerals Development and Regulation Act.

In January 2009,the Orissa government had recommended to the Centre for grant of PL in favour of Posco in an area of 2,500 hectares of the Khandadhar iron ore reserve in Sundargarh district. Once the Union Mines Ministry greenlighted the states recommendation for PL,it would have paved the way for the Korean steel major to start prospecting. After prospecting the area,Posco would have been eligible for applying for final mining lease for extracting 600 million tonnes of iron ore over the next 30 years.

The recommendation for PL was made in favour of the Posco as per Section 115 of the MMDR Act. However,several companies including Geomin Minerals challenged the state governments contentions in 2009 before the Orissa HC.

Meanwhile,the Meena Gupta committee may submit its report latest by October 15 instead of September 30 as it was awaiting certain documents.