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A belligerent Opposition today took the state government head on in the assembly over the contentious issue of irregularities committed by Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) in allowing mortgage of land leased out to industrial promoters.
Close on the heels of a recent report of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) exposing the irregularities on land deals, the Opposition and the treasury benches were on a collision course on the issue inside the house.
The Opposition MLAs complained that Idco permitting unauthorised land mortgage enabled 26 companies to avail loans worth Rs 52,000 crore. The money so raised was siphoned by the industry to fund ruling party’s election expenses, the Opposition alleged.
Presenting documents, the Opposition claimed 251 companies had not utilised the allotted land at Mancheswar industrial estate while land allotted to 161 companies at the Chandaka industrial utilised had the same fate. Also, 172 firms at the Infocity area and 20 others at Rasulgarh industrial estate were sitting over the leased lands, they complained.
The Opposition further alleged that 29,669 acres of farm land was allocated to industries without the nod of the agriculture department.
“Most of the land leased out to industries by Idco still remain unutilised,” said Congress MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati.
State BJP unit president K V Singhdeo said, “The power to mortgage the land is of the government and not of Idco. Before issuing NOC (no objection certificate), prior approval of the government is needed.” In its defence, the government said land was being leased out through Idco to facilitate industrialisation in the state according to the Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR). The government admitted that as many as 1,656 companies had not utilised the allotted land properly.
“The land lease has been scrapped in 313 cases while we have issued showcause notices in around 1,200 cases. Land has been resumed in case of a sugar mill at Nabarangpur. The government has also issued three showcause notices on Tata Steel for failing to utilise 120 acres land at Jajpur for a ferro manganese plant,” said industries minister, Debi Prasad Mishra.
The issue of land mortgage to raise finance by industries has snowballed into a controversy with CAG in its recently released report lashing out at Idco for conferring mortgage rights to industries which violated several rules in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
“Idco irregularly conferred mortgage rights in the lease deeds executed with 52 MoU (memorandum of understanding) based and 54 non-MoU based industries while handing over of possession of 46,732.894 acres land even though such power was not vested with Idco by the state government”, the CAG report stated.
