The private players across the country who had signed MoUs since the constitution of Jharkhand as a new state bifurcating Bihar in 2000, have been eagerly waiting for the follow up action against their signed MoUs by the Shibu Soren-led ministry sworn in on last week by the Governor K Sankaranarayanan, ending over 11 months of President’s Rule in the state.
The state had so far signed 71 MoUs with an investment of Rs 2,95,857.75 crore with the private players to set up industrial projects in the state.
Jharkhand had seen seven governments in nine years since the state was constituted. The conditions laid down in the MoUs during all the years were not implements by any of the government which came to power.
The Jharkhand government had failed to provide the required land to set up the industries. A senior state government official said that the state-owned vacant land in Jharkhand was negligible and so it did not go for land acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act 1894 and hence it was the investor’s responsibility to acquire land directly from the land owners.
A revised rehabilitation and resettlement policy had been prepared in August 2008 but it could not be placed before the state Assembly for approval.
The investors had to run from pillar to post to resolve their problems in absence of the Single Window System (SWC).
