BHUBANESWAR: The Government on Tuesday directed the Forest Department to initiate compensatory plantation activities against forest land acquired for oil refinery of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Posco’s steel project near Paradip. The directive of the Government came in the wake of large-scale felling of trees in the proposed project site for Posco. The issue was discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary BK Patnaik at the Secretariat on Tuesday. Industries Secretary T Ramchandru informed the meeting about the current status of the two projects. The meeting was told that 31.5 acres of forest land had been acquired for construction of coastal-cum-sea surge protection wall. An equal quantity of non-forest land has been transferred to the Forest and Environment Department for afforestation. Similarly, land has also been identified for afforestation against the forest land acquired for Posco project. The Chief Secretary directed the Forest Department to start compensatory afforestation programme from the current year. The department has also been asked to initiate extensive plantation activities across Jagatsinghpur district during this year. It has been decided in the meeting that a new police station will be set up at Avayachandrapur near Paradip Refinery Project to provide law and order services in the area. Home Department has been advised to take up the construction of new police station building and posting of required staff. The encroachment at Sandhabasti village will be removed and near about 92 unauthorised hutments will be shifted from the place. The Additional District Magistrate, Paradip, Paradip Port Trust (PPT), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) along with Paradip Municipality have been asked to work together for shifting of hutments. The Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar, has been directed to identify degraded forest land for compensatory afforestation against the forest land required for construction of proposed south Jetty by PPT. For expeditious implementation of the project, IOCL required posting of a boiler inspector at its construction site. Officers of the Labour and Employment Department posted at Paradip and Jagatsinghpur will look after the work till the posting of a new boiler inspector. The meeting also decided to provide power connection to the intake well of the refinery for supply of water. The Water Resource Department was asked to examine the technical details of the intake well and allow only technically permissible constructions. Revenue Secretary RK Sharma, Culture Secretary AK Tripathy, Commerce and Transport Secretary GK Dhal, Water Resources Additional Secretary Usha Padhee were present.
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