Mamata may take away JSW's land

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday warned that if the JSW group did not begin their steel plant at Salbani, the government would take away the land given to the group and give it to other industrialists.

Jindals were given over 4,500 acres of agriculture land, including some government land, to set up an iron and steel plant, but they did not do it, the chief minister said.

Irked over the delay in the starting of work on the Rs 35,000-crore steel plant by the Jindals here in West Midnapore district, Mamata said she asked the group to pay Rs 5,000 to each family who gave up their land for the project. “I have told the Jindals that the 400 families who gave their land for the project be paid Rs 5,000 each per month till they are given employment in the project,” Banerjee told at a function here.

“Moreover, the project has to be started soon. If the industry (by JSW) is not set up, we will establish an alternate industry,” Banerjee warned. The Jindal group had promised over 400 landowners, whose lands were acquired for the purpose, that their family members would get a job in the plant, she said, and asked JSW authorities to pay Rs 5,000 each month to each of those families till they were provided a job in the plant.

The then chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, had laid the JSW project’s foundation stone on November 2, 2008, for the 10 million-tonne capacity plant.

JSW Steel officials were not available for comment.

This is not the state government's first run-in with the company. At her first investors' meet immediately after slipping into the role of Chief Minister Banerjee had conveyed her disapproval about the delay in the project, publicly.

JSW had entered into an agreement with the West Bengal government, then led by the Left Front, for a 10 million tonne steel plant in 2007, but work on the steel plant was yet to start.

Mamata Banerjee's government after taking charge discovered that JSW had not obtained a 14Y exemption from the government, which was holding back the lease agreement. The government's contention was that the company had acquired 300 acres directly from land owners without prior approval from the land reforms department. The Land Reforms Act places a ceiling of 24 acres on land acquisition while Section 14Y of the Act exempts the ceiling.

However, an understanding was reached that the government would vest the land and then lease it to the company. But there were still other issues like forest clearance holding the agreement.

At the end other end of the problem was iron ore. After the clampdown on iron ore mining, JSW Steel's existing facilities were facing challenging times. Though the Salboni project had bagged coking coal and thermal coal mines, iron ore, the other key raw material input is not available in West Bengal.