Farmers oppose land transfers in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh government has been forced to slow down its industrialisation process with farmers refusing to give up their land to Tata Steel and Essar Steel for their plants in the Maoist stronghold of Bastar.

While Tata Steel had signed up with the state government in June 2005 for a five million tonne per annum (mta) steel plant in Bastar with Rs.100 billion investment, Essar Steel had a Rs 70 billion deal for a 3.2 mta plant in Bastar’s Dantewada district. But they could well come unstuck with land acquisition becoming a thorny issue.

“Farmers of Lohandiguda area, where the Tata plant was to come up, had agreed late last year to hand over their land. Earlier this year, farmers in two tribal villages, Dhurli and Bhansi in Dantewada, agreed to surrender their land for Essar,” a top official said.

“The government had made all efforts to ensure smooth land handover to the steel makers, but a few local politicians messed up things. Now, the transfer issue has become a volatile one with Maoist militants stepping into the controversy,” he added.