Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, July 17:

Seeking to put the Odisha government on the mat on the issue of alleged misutilisation of IDCO land by industrial houses, the Opposition Congress and BJP today demanded stern action against the persons responsible for it.

Industry minister Debi Prasad Mishra Industry minister Debi Prasad Mishra

The opposition members alleged that agriculture land was utilised for industrial purposes while land allotted for setting up industries was used for residential and other purposes violating the rule.

Citing the findings of the CAG, they also alleged that land was used for industrial purposes without obtaining environment clearance and clearance for forest diversion.

Refuting the Opposition allegations, Industry Minister Debi Prasad Mishra said land was allotted by following the law and denied the charge of misutilsation of government land allotted through IDCO for industrial purposes.

Replying to the debate on an adjournment motion on misutilisation of allotted land to industries, Mishra said that IDCO had already issued show cause notices as a prelude to cancellation of the land allotment of 1260 industrial units while it has already cancelled allotted land to 313 industrial units.

The Minister further said the IDCO had so far allotted 5130,23 acres of land to 4297 small and medium industries in 106 industrial areas out of which 1656 industrial houses have not utilised their land so far due to various reasons.

He said the IDCO had allotted 19774.692 acres of government land and 34447.876 acres of private land to 94 companies which had signed MoU and 133 non-MoU Projects for setting up of industries.

Mishra claimed that commissioning of steel projects like JSPL, Essar, JSL, VISA, power projects like Sterlite, JITPL, GMR and aluminium projects like Vedant, Aditya and Utkal  was made possible because of the land allotted to them.

He said the IOCL refinery project at Paradip and Tata Steel project at Kalingnagar are going to be commissioned soon. Due to the industrialisation on the land allotted by IDCO, the production of steel, aluminium and thermal power had increased manifold in the state.

The Minister, however, admitted that some projects could not be started in time due to delay in getting mining lease, forest diversion clearance and environment clearance from the Union government.