Even as Orissa keeps dragging its feet over land acquisition for mega steel plant project, the Karnataka government has agreed to grant ArcelorMittal and Posco the required land for setting up steel plants on a 10-year lease.
Talking to FE, principal secretary for commerce and industries department of Karnataka VP Baligar said the sale of land would be executed only after the lease period, provided the companies complete their projects within the specified time. Also, the sale deed would be registered in the name of the steel companies before the 10-year period if they manage to complete the project ahead of schedule.
The state government is looking to acquire the required land directly from the farmers and transfer them on lease basis to the companies. According to sources, the arrangement of transferring the land on lease and executing the sale deed after 10-year period was to ensure that the agricultural land acquired from the farmers is used only for projects.
Like West Bengal that lost the Tata Nano project due to land acquisition issues with the farmers, acquiring agricultural land is emerging as a major issue in Karnataka, too. Already, Opposition parties in the state including Janata Dal (S) are protesting against the ruling BJP government for acquiring land from the farmers to create a huge land bank for various industries ahead of global investors meet in June.
JD (S) supremo HD Deve Gowda has been pressing the BJP government not to create a huge land bank by acquiring farm lands before the government could get industrial proposals. Currently, the state government has identified around 96,000 acres, of which 49,000 acres have been notified for industrial purpose, a government official requesting anonymity said. About 50,000 acres would be kept ready before the global investors meet scheduled for June 2010, the official added.
Both Arcelor Mittal and Posco have sought around 5,000-6,000 acres each to set up their integrated mega steel factories in Karnataka. Arcelor Mittal has committed to invest Rs 30,000 crore to establish 6 million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel manufacturing facility while Posco would inject in Rs 32,300 crore for a 6-mtpa capacity plant in Karnataka.