SteelMin takes up Arcelor Mittal’s land issue

Rastogi said in course of the meeting,Bhatnagar categorically denied media reports that the company was pulling out of the country. “But they told me that they were facing problems in land acquisition in Jharkhand more than Orissa. We will sincerely try for an amicable resolution of the company’s problems pertaining to its investment.”

Though the company has not been able to acquire land in either of these two states,the situation is more serious in Jharkhand than in Orissa. Attributing the delay in land acquisition to “social activism”,Bhatnagar reasoned that if faced with further delays,“the company does reserve the right to think in terms of re-locating the project from Torpa-Tamdara (Jharkhand) to an alternative site within the state.” He said that the state government has allocated about 1,200 acres of government land and as required by the state,80 per cent of the cost of the allocated land has been deposited with the government.

“However,we are yet not able to visit the allocated land owing to stiff opposition from local activists. Moreover,the Jharkhand government is yet to expedite the prospecting licences on 1,000 hectares of mining area the company needs for mining iron ore. In addition,the prospecting licence needed for commencing mining operations in the Seregarha coal block allocated to it by the coal ministry is also yet to be processed. The delay runs into close to a year,” Bhatnagar pointed out.

Similarly,the company is eagerly awaiting progress in securing mining leases in Orissa. This issue is being constantly taken up for redressal with the Orissa government along with the issue of expeditious land acquisition.