No land aquisition by state administration: Jharkhand

Jharkhand will not acquire private land for prospective mega investors, instead the companies would have to purchase land before approaching the administration for statutory clearances for their projects.

The state, which is under President’s rule since June, has signed 73 MoUs with an investment of over Rs 3,00,000 crore with private companies for setting up industries.

The state industries department in September 2006, had compiled a list indicating a requirement of 98,547 acres for the 55 MoUs signed between 2004-06. Thereafter, the department did not update the database to include MoUs signed after 2006.

At a high-level meeting, held in the state capital recently, chaired by the Governor’s adviser VS Dubey, 16 MoUs with an investment of over Rs 2,00,000 crore signed between 2003 and 2007, were reviewed.

The progress on the work by investors like ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel, Essar Steel, JSPL, JSW, Monnet Ispat, Hindalco Industries, Bhushan Power & Steel, Adhunic Alloys & Power Limited, among others, was highlighted in the review meeting.

The companies were instructed to directly purchase between 200 to 500 acres of land from private land owners before October this year. Only Congress MP Naveen Jindal’s JSPL had been able to start production from the Balkudra steel mill at Patratu by acquiring over 500 acres of the ailing BASL.