Ballari: Taking exception to senior Congress leader H.K. Patil's opposition to the sale of land to JSW Steel in Toranagallu village in Sandur here, his party colleague and senior MLC K.C. Kondaiah defended the coalition government's decision to sell 3,666 acres of land to JSW.
“I was surprised by the statements made by H.K. Patil and JD(S) state president A.H. Vishwanath objecting to the execution of the absolute sale deed with JSW, since the coalition government has only honoured a commitment made as per an earlier agreement with the company and no rule is violated,” he said.
“Since 1994, as an MP, I have been seeing the development carried out by JSW. Besides, agriculture and horticulture, we need industries for the overall development of the area.If there are any pending dues, it can be recovered from the company,” he said.
Starting with 1.5 lakh metric tones of steel production per year in 1997-98, Mr Kondaiah said JSW Steel is now producing 11 million tonnes per year and was planning to expand production to 18 to 20 million tonnes in the near future. He said, JSW had invested Rs 62,025 crore in the Toranagallu steel plant, besides giving direct employment to about 25,000 people and nearly 2 lakh people indirectly.
He was of the opinion that Gadag MLA Mr Patil should have tried to retain the South Korean steel company-Posco which shelved its Gadag steel plant project in 2011 folllowing protests from local farmers and religious heads.
Welcoming the coalition government's decision to grant land to JSW Steel, mining industrialist and Ballari JD(S) leader Mr Mohammed Iqbal Hothur said, "transfer of land to JSW is as per law and the people raising objections are doing it just for the sake of objecting".
On Mr Patil's statement that government gave the 'mineral bearing land' at a throwaway price to JSW, he said, "there has been talk that there are iron ore deposits under the flat barren rain fed agricultural land which is nothing but ignorance .People in responsible positions should not make such baseless statements."
Recalling that his mining firm, Hothur Traders had entered into a joint venture with South Korean steel giant Posco to set up a steel plant near Gadag about ten years ago, he said, "due to the resistance from local politicians, Posco decided to shelve the project. It would have created employment opportunities for nearly 15,000 people directly and about one lakh indirectly", he said.
