The first Chhattisgarh Cabinet meeting after oath taking ceremony of another nine Ministers of the Congress Government was held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel at the Mantralaya here on Tuesday.

The Cabinet accorded ‘in-principle’ nod to the proposal for returning of land acquired for Tata Steel in 10 villages of the Bastar region of the state.

Newly inducted ministers Ravindra Chaubey and Mohammed Akbar informed media persons after the Cabinet meeting in a press conference that Chief Secretary Ajay Singh after taking a policy decision would start the process of returning the land of the farmers in Bastar.

The action is being taken by the Government under Section 101, they informed. 

The ministers further informed that there are 1707 farmers who have been paid the compensation of Rs 42.7 crore for the land, they informed.

Notably, the government had acquired land for establishment of Tata Steel Plant from the farmers in the year 2008 and the company had failed to set up the unit in stipulated time frame as per the MoU with the State Government.

The villages where the land was acquired are — Chidgaon, Kumhali, Beliyapal, Badanji, Dabpal, Badeparoda, Belar, Takraguda and Sirisguda.

The MoU was extended but finally ended in June 2016, when company did not seek further extension. The company was allotted 2,500 hectares of iron ore mine in Bailadila Deposit 4 in 2008 for supply of raw material to the proposed steel plant. It is said that due to multiple factors in land acquisition and protest from local people, the project could not take off.

Meanwhile, the company also lost the mine of estimated reserve of 108 million tonnes of high grade iron ore as it could not commence mining. The government then could not allocate the mine due to the amended Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation Act 2015), which stipulates auction as the only mode for mine allocation.