Tata Steel is yet to pay about Rs 27 crore compensation to the villagers, who had given away their land in Bastar where the steel major was coming up with a mega steel project.
The 5.5 million tonnes per annum green-field integrated steel plant of the Tata Steel would come up in Lohandiguda development block of Bastar district. The company had inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chhattisgarh government in June 2005 for the project.
The state government on Wednesday informed in the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly that Tata Steel was due to pay compensation of Rs 27.35 crore to the villagers. The company had in fact paid compensation of Rs 42.07 crore to the villagers earlier.
The Tata Steel would require about 2,044 hectares of land for setting up the steel plant. Since the area where the steel company had proposed to set up plant comes under the tribal area, the state government would acquire land on behalf of company and later allot it on lease. The company had to pay the required compensation.
“In all, 1764 hectare of land had been acquired from 1707 land holders located in 10 villages in Bastar district,” state’s minister for revenue Dayaldas Baghel told the House.
Besides, 173 hectare of government land had also been acquired by the administration for the Tata steel’s project. Baghel said the administration had acquired the land between October 2007 and February 2008.
