States' panel to prepare rules for land banks

The Centre today constituted a committee of industry ministers of seven states to prepare guidelines for creating land banks for meeting industrial needs.

The move assumes significance especially at a time when the chorus for a transparent land acquisition is getting louder.

However, the absence of Orissa and West Bengal in the committee, where land acquisition for private projects have raised a storm in the past two years, is conspicuous.

Interestingly, these states did not attend the meeting called by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) here on November 17 to prepare a roadmap for accelerating industrial growth and investment.

Industry ministers from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan are in the high-level committee that will also find a way to simplify the procedures for different clearances for industrial units.

As far as possible, waste and fallow lands, plus the sites locked in sick and defunct industrial units should be utilised for creating the land pool, the DIPP said in the terms of reference for the committee.

Projects by multinationals as well as domestic corporates worth lakhs of crores of rupees announced as far ago as in 2004 are locked in land disputes.

South Korean steel giant Posco's around Rs 54,000 crore project in Orissa is yet to take off due to problems in land acquisition. It had signed the MoU for the project in 2005. Its licence for developing a special economic zone at Paradip in the state also got lapsed this October due to the same reason.

World's biggest steel maker ArcelorMittal's around Rs 1 lakh crore projets in Orissa and Jharkhand is also facing the same fate. While it signed the MoU with Jharkhand in 2005, for Orissa plant the agreement was signed almost four years ago in 2006.

The fate of Maha SEZ project in Navi Mumbai, which would have been the largest SEZ, by Reliance Industries is also hanging in balance because of land issues.

Domestic conglomerate Tatas had to shift their Rs 1 lakh car Nano project in West Bengal to Gujarat even after investing Rs 1,500 crore at the site at Singur.

More recently, the Allahabad High Court had struck down land acquisition by the government for Reliance Power's Rs 10,000 Mw Dadri power project. The project was announced way back in 2004.

Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata yesterday reportedly said, "Land is a hot issue and it is going to impact projects.... Conflicts related to land are promoted by individuals who do not belong to that area but who have other political motives. (Therefore) Leaders need to difine and reconcile between cultivated land and industrial land, becuase agriculture also needs to be efficient. There should not no long-term detriment to the land owner."