The Gujarat Government's transfer of 1,100 acres - carved from land that was originally meant for research by the Anand Agriculture University (AAU) - to the Tatas for the Nano small-car project may not have hit any major roadblocks yet, but a similar move by the Government earlier is lying foundered on legal shoals.

Barely two years ago, the Gujarat Government had acquired 65,000 sq metres of land from the Cotton Research Centre under the state-run Navsari Agricultural University, located at one of Surat's prime locations at Ghod Dod Road. However, the Gujarat HC accepted a PIL that maintained that no land meant for agricultural research could be given away for a commercial project, and stayed the Government's move. The stay has not been lifted and the next hearing of the case is on October 21.

The court had come into the picture after the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) released an advertisement inviting expressions of interest in developing this land for tourism and entertainment infrastructure.

After the PIL was moved, the Chhatrala Hotel Group, which staked its claim for developing the property in question, joined issue as a respondent, along with the Gujarat Government, GIDC and NAU. Talking to The Indian Express, the petitioner, a local farmer who asked not to be named, claimed he was now under tremendous pressure to back off. "There has been a lot of pressure on me ever since I filed that PIL. All we are saying is that when the Government already has so much land, why must it set up industries that have nothing to do with farming on land meant for agricultural research?"

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