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The Orissa government on Thursday pulled up ArcelorMittal, for "not making any investment" so far in its proposed 12mtpa greenfield steel plant at Keonjhar, and questioned its "actual intentions".
Orissa's steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty and two senior bureaucrats asked ArcelorMittal's project chief in India Sanak Mishra these questions at the first review meeting of implementation of mega projects in the state.
"Media report says you are going slow on Orissa project and you have not denied it," Mohanty asked Mishra, who said ArcelorMittal was committed to its Orissa project.
The company which had signed MoU with the state government to set up the mega steel plant in December 2006, at an investment of Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion), had given direct employment to only 12 persons.
Denying report that ArcelorMittal had not made any investment, Mishra claimed that the firm had already deposited Rs 25 crore with the government for land acquisition related activities and held gram sabhas in eight of the 15 would be affected villages in Keonjar.
While the state government expressed its 'displeasure' over the number of employment given to local people, Mishra said they had a 'strong' policy and would provide jobs to many people once activities began at the field.