Forest land to Essar: HC asks Centre to decide in four weeks

The PIL,filed by former Congress MLA Farook Shaikh through advocate Harshil Dholakia,had claimed,“The company has illegally acquired the said land and also constructed houses and allied employee infrastructure facilities on the encroached land.”

He said the land at Suvali village in south Gujarat had a market value of Rs 6,228 crore,but it was sold to the private steel firm at a throwaway price and without inviting any tender,thus causing “a big loss to the state exchequer”.

Urging the HC to quash the state government decision to allot the land to Essar,the petitioner claimed the allocation was done without the Centre’s prior approval.

Without granting the prayer of declaring the allotment as illegal and demolish the constructions,HC asked the Centre to decide the issue of whether to grant an approval to the allotment of forest land to ESL within four weeks from today.

“In case the Central government decides not to grant approval within four weeks,state government shall demolish the constructions (on the land) in the next six weeks,” said the bench.