Steel-maker JSW Ltd has agreed to return to the farmers the land that the industry group had acquired directly from them, to set up a major integrated steel project in West Bengal, which they have now put on hold.
This was announced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday and corroborated by the industry group to The Hindu . Ms. Banerjee looked visibly happy at the development saying that this was a pro-farmer move on the part of the industry group.
Around 294 acres would be returned by JSW, which has in its possession 4268.77 acres in Salboni in the state’s Paschim Medinipur district, once a ultra-left extremism nerve centre.
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The project was rolled out in 2006 during the regime of Buddhedeb Bhattacharjee. The project never really took off although the company had possession of most of the land, which was given to it from vested government land.
The project was announced at a time when Ms. Banerjee’s Singur land agitation was at its peak. Ms. Banerjee had been raising a pitch against land-squatters of late saying that industry groups could not sit on large parcels of land if they had problems implementing their projects.
The Sajjan Jindal Group company recently pushed back the project citing raw material and other problems. Ms Banerjee said that the farmers would get their land back free.
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