Land given for industries will be recovered if they don’t start even after years: Murugesh Nirani

 

Belagavi: Karnataka Large and Medium Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani on Friday said the government would recover lands allotted to more than 500 industries for not starting their ventures even after several years of approving the project.

Replying to Congress MLA N H Shivashankar Reddy’s query in the State Assembly, Nirani said the government has already identified the allotted lands where industries were not started even after five to 20 years of sanction.

Sale deed will not be done till they start the industries in full scale and they cannot use the industrial land for real estate purpose. Else we will recover the land,” he said.

The Minister further said 15 per cent of industrial land must be reserved for residential purposes. Replying to MLA S Ramappa’s query, Nirani denied the role of middlemen in the land acquisition process and said compensation is paid to farmers directly.

He said the State-level single-window agency has approved 16 projects in Harihar Taluk in Davangere district with an expected investment of Rs 217.34 crore and creation of 908 jobs.

Cargill has set up starch manufacturing unit at a cost of Rs 630 crore and 85 per cent Kannadigas are employed. The government has approved Mangaluru Refinery Petro Chemicals Company’s 2G ethanol unit at a cost of Rs 966 crore and 47 acres of land has been allotted and lease deed process is under way, Nirani told the House.

Reiterating the government’s position on providing jobs to local people, Nirani, while replying to MLA Amrut Desai, said the government is committed to provide jobs to locals as per Dr Sarojini Mahishi report and also to the kin of farmers who sold their land for industries.