Tata Steel blames 'unruly elements'

CHENNAI: Caught in a controversy over acquiring land for its titanium dioxide project at Sattankulam in Southern Tamil Nadu, Tata Steel today said 'illegal mining and unruly elements' had led to a situation in which previous state government could not acquire the land for the Rs.2,500 crore project, for which it had signed an MoU in 2002.
   
"The project is definitely on," Tata Steel Managing Director B Muthuraman told reporters here.   

Asked if the previous government did not acquire the land because of the "unruly elements", he said "definitely".
   
"We want to do the project with the support of the people. Almost 3/4th of the people in the area are supporting the project. The remaining have some doubts. We will clear those doubts in the minds of those people...We want to execute the project because the people want it," he claimed in the wake of stiff opposition to the project from allies of the DMK-led Government and various opposition parties.
   
"I am willing to have a debate with any cross-section of people about the project," he said while expressing surprise over the opposition to the project.
   
Asked whether the project was being politicised, he said  "I don't know."
   
Tata's first major investment project in Tamil Nadu envisaged mining of ilmenite, titanium and garnet minerals found in abundance in over 11,000 acres in 47 villages in and around Sattankulam and Pudukulam in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli districts. It also envisaged setting up of a factory to produce titanium dioxide.