Essar Steel to pay Rs 19 lakh per acre to land losers

The long-standing dispute over the finalization of the rate of private land for Essar Steel's pelletisation project in Paradip has been finally resolved with the company authorities agreeing to pay Rs 19.1 lakh per acre to the land losers. This is the highest rate paid by any company for land acquisition in the state till date, sources said.

The land rate was arrived following a tripartite meeting of the land losers, the district administration and the company authorities. The meeting was chaired by Gyanranjan Das, the Jagatsinghpur district collector and was attended by S R Sethy, director, Essar Steel; M S Thakur, the company's project manager; Surjeet Das, the district rehabilitation officer and Nrusingh Swain, the special land acquisition officer among others.

At the meeting, Sanjay Swain, president of Milit Kriyanustan Committee, a body formed by the land losers and other local leaders highlighted various issues pertaining to land compensation, employment opportunities in the plant and proper implementation of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) Policy of the Orissa government.

Apart from land compensation, the other demands of the land losers are expected to be taken up at the meeting of the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) to be held soon.

It may be noted that the land acquisition process for Essar Steel's project had got stuck for three years due to non-finalization of the rate of private land. The land losers who had demanded a compensation of Rs 25 lakh per acre of private land had boycotted the company's award passing camp at Kujang.