After getting a green signal from the people of 2 villages of Keonjhar district, World’s largest integrated metals and mining company ArcelorMittal has started the process of land acquisition for its 12 million tonnes per annum steel plant in Orissa.

The company now hopes to take the possession of the required land by the end of this year.

Bhubaneshwar, Aug 9 : The Dongria and Jharnia Kondh tribes of Kalahandi today announced to continue their protest against the London based Vedanta Group despite Supreme Court’s green signal to the Company to go ahead with its project worth 800 million dollars to mine bauxite from the Niyamgiri Hills.

The Supreme Court has finally cleared South Korean steel major Posco's plans to set up a Rs 51,000 crore mega steel plant and captive minor port in Paradeep, Orissa.

A special environmental bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan allowed Posco India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Korea-based Posco, to go ahead with the project.

With this order, the apex court has also cleared forest diversion proposal for the plant site which require 1253.225 hectares of forest land.

London, Aug. 1 : Representatives of Orissa’s remote Dongria Kondh tribe have been successful in denouncing a mining project undertaken by Britain’s Vedanta Group during the latter’s annual general body meeting here.

According to The Independent, Vedanta founder and chairman Anil Agarwal was cornered when he was asked to explain in detail his group’s commitment to "sustainable development" after Dongria Kondh tribals presented testimony on how the company was destroying the environment even before the mining has started.

Though Vedanta Resources told shareholders that the company had earned record revenue for a sixth successive year (revenues of 8.2 billion dollars, 26 per cent up on

Sajjan Jindal-controlled the JSW Steel group plans to invest Rs 2000 crore in four years to setup a deep sea port in the Bhadrak district of Orissa, which is located right outside the border of West Bengal.  

The proposed port in Orissa, which would handle coal and finished steel products, have an initial capacity of 25-30 million tones. The company would take 3-4 years to execute the project.  

The port would also support import of raw materials and export of finished goods of the 10 million steel plants in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

Balasore, July 25 : Panic has gripped Orissa''s Balasore District after fissures appeared on the ground leading to rumours of the possibility of an earthquake.

Residents of the area are now living in fear after they had glimpse of about a kilometer deep cracks on the ground.

Cracks have appeared on the walls of a number of houses, forcing people to evacuate them. The cracks have completely damaged a house while three other houses have developed cracks.

Authorities say that the geological department will soon investigate the seismic activity.