Although Tata Power Company (TPC) and Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) are rivals, the rehabilitation packages offered by them for their upcoming projects in Maharashtra have many things in common. For one, both companies have offered Rs 17.3 lakh a hectare (Rs 7 lakh an acre) for buying land. TPC proposes to set up an imported coal-based 1,600-mw project over 1,300 acres and REL will develop a 1,200-mw coal-based project on 2,400 acres in Shahapur in the coastal Raigad district.
These projects are facing delay due to a dispute over land allocation, but are expected to come up by 2011 since Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has intervened in the matter.
Not just similarities, some key differences exist as well. For example, REL has considered ?land-for-land? compensation under in its offer of Rs 17.3 lakh for a hectare, while TPC does not have any such provision. TPC and REL have submitted these proposals based on the National Relief and Rehabilitation Policy 2007 and the Maharashtra Relief and Rehabilitation Act XI of 2001.
REL has assured that, during construction, it will give preference to employing landless labourers and persons affected by the buying only if jobs are available at that time. TPC, too, has a similar thinking but has made it clear that landless labourers will be given preference for jobs.
Both have promised to provide 750 days? minimum agriculture wages to each family affected by the construction. Both REL and TPC have envisaged an annuity scheme for providing Rs 500 a month to those who might be affected. This is in step with a national policy.
For periphery development, REL has proposed 0.1% of the net profit with a maximum cap of Rs 2 crore a year for this purpose. TPC has promised to earmark a maximum Rs 1 crore a year for this purpose or a minimum of Rs 10 lakh in the event of the company not making profit.