By IANS
Chennai : Tata Steel's move to set up a titanium dioxide plant in Tamil Nadu faces criticism from opposition parties barely a month after the company entered into an agreement with the state government for the second time.
On Sunday, AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha threatened to demonstrate against the project.
Last month, the Tatas had announced that they would set up the plant to make titanium dioxide – used as a base for paints – from ilmenite, mined from the beach sands of Tuticorin and Tirunelveli districts in southern Tamil Nadu.
Former MP and actor R. Sarath Kumar, who is planning to launch a political outfit soon, has set up a "fact-finding team" to investigate the sale of land to the Tatas in 50 villages in Sathankulam, Radhapuram and Tiruchendur areas of the district.
PMK chief S. Ramadoss said, "Ilmenite should not be a private property and the government should itself set up the plant instead of giving it to a private party like the Tatas.
"When the government is finding it tough to set up desalination plants in Tamil Nadu, the Tatas' talk of desalination plant, reclamation of land and agro-based employment is simply unbelievable," Ramadoss said.
The plant, entailing an investment of Rs.25 billion, will have a capacity to mine 500,000 tonnes of ilmenite and make 100,000 tonnes of titanium dioxide a year.
India imports about 70,000 tonnes of titanium dioxide every year.
Political outfits are alarmed that huge chunks of Tamil Nadu's southern beaches will go to private hands as the project needs a huge area of land – for every 100 tonnes of sand mined for ilmenite, 90 tonnes of sand will go waste.
Tata Steel had first signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jayalalitha government in 2002, but the project failed to take off.
The AIADMK now alleges that the ruling DMK is acquiring land from farmers in Santhankulam taluk at very low prices and the Tata project "would affect the livelihood of around 20,000 families".
"Moreover, Karunanidhi has created an impression among farmers that as many as 1,000 people would get direct employment and indirect employment for 3,000 in the proposed plant," she said.
"The AIADMK party condemns the DMK government's initiative in acquiring land indiscriminately from poor farmers to hand it over to entrepreneurs."
Ramadoss said, "It is simply shocking to learn that the government would acquire 10,600 acres of land for the Tatas".
He warned Tata's Tamil Nadu plans would soon turn into another Singur – the town near Kolkata where a project of another Tata firm, Tata Motors, has been facing violent protests.
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