Tata Steel waits for revision of land acquisition Act

Tata Steel will not make any deal directly with the landowners to purchase land for its greenfield steel plant in Jharkhand as the steel major feels that it would create mafias and deprive the landowners from their rights which expected to be incorporated in the proposed amendments to the Land Acquisition Act to be tabled in Parliament shortly. Vice president (corporate services) of Tata Steel Partha Sengupta said that some investors who had signed MoUs with the Jharkhand government purchased land for their greenfield projects through middlemen.

But Tata Steel would not go through this process as it considered that it was the duty of the Jharkhand government to provide land to the investors as per terms and conditions laid down in the MoUs, Sengupta added.

He said that Tata Steel functions on fixed principles and ethics and it would not indulge in direct purchase of land which is contrary to the rule.Sengupta said the Land acquisition Act which followed in Bihar is enforced in Jharkhand after the state was constituted bifurcating Bihar. In the said LA Act there is a provision that the government has to provide land for the company.

He said that if the Jharkhand government wanted that the investors should purchase land directly from the landowners then the government should bring a fresh Act for this purpose. Sengupta said that several state governments had acquired land and handed over it to the companies for setting up plants.

He said that Jharkhand had not yet passed the Acts on the state’s rehabilitation and resettlement policy and Single Window System which was essential for the industries.

It may be mentioned that Tata Steel had signed an MoU with the Jharkhand government on September 8, 2005 for setting up a 12 million tonnes steel plant with an investment of Rs 42,000 crore in Manoharpur/Chandil.

(The report was based on a visit to Jamshedpur, sponsored by Tata Steel)