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| ArcelorMittal to change location within Jharkhand |
| Tapan Chakravorti / Kolkata/ Ranchi Oct 01, 2009, 02:57 IST |
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The 12-million ton per annum capacity steel project of the Arcelor-Mittal Group is likely to be shifted from the present project site in tribal-dominated Torpa-Kamdara of Khunti district to other suitable location within Jharkhand as tribals living in the area have been vehemently protesting for sharing their land to build the steel plant.
The Jharkhand government’s industries secretary N N Sinha said the state government came to know that Arcelor-Mittal Group had been contemplating to shift their project site from Torpa-Kamdara to some other suitable location in the state.
Official sources in the state capital says that the steel major has been facing strong resistance from the locals under the leadership of some local organisations and NGOs in procuring the required land for the proposed steel project in their selected site at Torpa-Kamdara through land acquisition process of the state government.z
Industry sources pointed out that most of the land in Jharkhand was owned by tribals and taking over their land has become a difficult task after building of Bokaro Steel Plant, Heavy Engineering Corporation’s three plants and expansion projects of the Central Coalfields Linited during the Bihar regime and now in Jharkhand.
Sources said after constitution of Jharkhand in November 2000, the state government had signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with nearly 60 domestic and overseas investors with commitments that the state government would provide land and other infrastructure to the investors who committed to set up their projects in Jharkhand.
Political observers said that most of the MoUs had been signed during the period of chief minister Arjun Munda. Details about the availability of land, water, electricity and related infrastructure for the proposed projects were not thoroughly examined.
They said that save and except signing of MoUs with the investors, the Jharkhand government did not take any follow-up action against their commitments incorporated in the MoUs with the investors. After lapse of several years, formation of industrial policy, single window system (SWS), land bank and other related areas had been take up by constituting Jharkhand Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (JIIDCO) in September 2005.
However, JIIDCO could do a little for the investors as the most important commitment incorporated in the MoU relating to allotment of land was not met.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand chief secretary Shiv Basant said in Jamshedpur on September 20 that the state government had been awaiting Parliament’s approval to the Centre’s new Land Acquisition Bill in which the prospective investors have to purchase 70 per cent of their land requirement directly from the land-holders and the rest 30 per cent would be acquired by the state government.
Industry sources said there had been much delay in implementing the commitments made in the MoUs by the state government which could create deadlock in the process of industrialization in Jharkhand.
Sources said uncertainty looms over the investment of Rs 1,51,000 crore in steel projects in the state of Jharkhand by various national and international companies soon after the violence at Kalinga Nagar in Jaipur district of Orissa on January 2, 2006 over handing over of tribal land for the construction of a steel project. The Kalinga Nagar violence had become one of the guiding factors among the locals of Jharkhand to resist the land acquisition for the industries.
The disquiet in the Jharkhand government after the Kalinga Nagar firing incident was reflected in the fact that the former state Governor Sayed Sibtey Razi had met the then President Abdul Kalam and the then Union home minister Shivraj Patil in New Delhi in January 2006.
The former Jharkhand Governor during meeting with the then President and the then Union home minister apprised them of the ongoing agitation in the villages in the state over the land acquisition process.
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