The South Korean steel major said that as the iron ore available in Orissa has higher alumina content, Posco may be allowed to swap the same amount of iron ore, with low alumina content sourced elsewhere in the country.
The Orissa government had suggested with doing away with the swapping clause following suggestions made by former union minister for environment Jairam Ramesh. The former environment minister, who is now looking at rural development, had put the condition while according the final forest clearance to the Posco project on May 2.
"The MoU had provision for export of iron ore which made me deeply uncomfortable with this project. I would expect that the revised MoU between the state and Posco would be negotiated in such a manner that exports of raw material are completely avoided," he wrote to the state government. Read the full report here.
Source: Nageshwar Patnaik, ET Bureau, Economic Times, Bhubaneswar.
