Congress party on Wednesday asked Chhattisgarh Government to return back roughly 1700 acres land to farmers which had been acquired by the State Government for setting up of an integrated steel plant by Tata Group in poverty-hit Bastar region.
“TATA Group has given up its plan to set up a mega steel plant at lohandiguda in Bastar district as per the report of Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation limited (CSIDCl) but the state government is going to hold the private lands acquired for the purpose in the name of land bank so that in future land could be made available for setting up of industries over there,” Secretary State Congress media committee Sushil Anand Shukla said.
“This decision of the BJP government is anti-farmer and illegal,’’ he added.
While pointing towards the case of Singur in West Bengal, he said Supreme Court has ordered to return back the land that was acquired for TATA’s Nano project and the West Bengal government has already started returning of land.
“Due to non-starter of Tata’s project in Singur the acquired land was returned back to the farmers then why is Raman Government not returning the land to tribals in BastarIJ” he questioned.
According to Shukla, the land acquisition law says that the purpose for which land is acquired, if it is not completed then the land has to be returned to its original owners irrespective of the fact that the original owner had received compensation for land.
“Since TATA is not going to set up its power plant at lohandiguda the land acquired for the purpose should be returned to its original owners,’’ Shukla demanded.