By Sujeet Kumar, IANS
Raipur : Tata Steel has offered what it feels will be an attractive package to compensate people for the land the company intends to acquire for its Rs.100 billion integrated steel plant in Chhattisgarh.
The Tatas say they will pay Rs.100,000 per acre for barren land, Rs.150,000 per acre for single-crop land and Rs.200,000 per acre for multi crop land, besides assuring a job to one adult from each affected family, company officials said.
Tata Steel, which signed a pact in June 2005 with the state government for the 5 million tonne unit in Bastar district, also promises up to 2.47 acre under its land-for-land package for those losing between 75-100 percent of their land.
The project needs 2,063.06 hectares or 5,098 acres in the Lohandiguda block that falls under the picturesque Chitrakote assembly segment in Bastar, famous for the waterfalls on the Indravati river, some 325 km south of here.
Out of 2,063.06 hectares, 86.5 percent is private land, 8.4 percent belongs to the government, while the rest is revenue and forestland. Tatas want to use the land for the steel unit, a township, reservoir, waste treatment and a green belt, officials said.
The project will cover 10 villages – Badanji, Bade Paroda, Belar, Beliyapal, Chindgaon, Dabpal, Dhuragaon, Kumhali, Sirisaguda and Takraguda – which has about 92 percent tribal population, mainly Gonds, Murias and Halbas.
Sub-divisional Magistrate for Jagdalpur town Neelkanth Tekam has started one-on-one meetings with the families on the compensation and is providing them details on how much of their land will be acquired if they agree, officials said.
“This process will be completed by month-end,” said a senior state government official, adding that since the project site came under Scheduled Area, it was necessary to seek the consent of the gram sabha before the final takeover.
The project is facing severe protests from farmers even as the state government says it will significantly chance the quality of people’s lives in the whole of mineral-rich, but largely backward, Bastar district.
Tatas have already secured an iron ore prospecting licence in Bailadila hills in the neighbouring Danteawda district. Officials said the area has 18 percent of the country’s finest quality iron ore estimated at 24 billion tones.
The licence for the Tatas is for an estimated stock of 150 million tones and the company will use it for the proposed plant in Bastar. The water will come from Sabri River, 60 km from the plant site.