A total of 542 of the 1,707 people who had given their land for the plant of Tata Steel ltd in Bastar region have yet to receive compensation, Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey said in the Chhattisgarh Assembly on Friday.
In a written reply to Congress member Deepak Bainj, the Minister said the land of a total of 1707 land holders were acquired for the proposed plant. However, a total of 542 land holders have yet to get compensation, he said. Pandey said 87 houses would also be affected by the plant. They included 54 houses on private land, 31 private houses on Government land and two government buildings.
He also said none of the displaced have so far been provided employment. Replying to another question by the Congress member, the Minister said the total area of land which would be affected by the plant include 427.55 acres of Government land and 4360.35 acres private land.
The land acquired includes 489.80 acres irrigated land and 3870.55 acres non irrigated land. Tata Steel ltd (TSl) is planning to build 5.5 million tonne per annum integrated steel plant in Bastar in two phases.The company had signed a memorandum of understanding in 2005. The state had also accorded approval for drawing water from river Sabri and Railway Ministry granted an in principle nod for the railway corridor. The MoU has been renewed a couple of times since then and the current tenure of the present one reportedly lasts till 2014.