Posco project is a closed chapter

BANGALORE: After failing to provide the promised land for the proposed steel plant in Gadag district, the state government has convened a meeting with the representatives of the Korean based steel giant Posco Ltd, to locate a new place in the state, Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani said here on Wednesday. While assuring the people of Gadag district that the government was very much committed to its decision of abandoning the proposal, Nirani informed that, a meeting has been convened with the representatives of Posco, to locate other possible sites in the state to set up the  steel plant.Dismissing media reports saying that the government was backtracking from its earlier decision on the issue, the industries minister assured the people of the district that there is no change of stand on the subject from the government.“Farmers, people’s representatives and pontiffs of various mutts in the state need not worry over the issue of land acquisition,” the  minister stated.Assuring that the state government will not acquire land from the farmers forcefully for the steel project in Halligudi, the minister said that the state government will also take care of the possible threat to the ecology before establishing any industrial unit in the state.   Denying reports that he or anybody from the state government has tread an extra mile to accommodate Posco, the minister asserted, “As the industries minister of the state, I have done my best to attract investment for the overall economic development of Karnataka.”