Oppostion slams policy, minister defends Idco

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the opposition Congress and BJP on Thursday came down heavily on the state government for allegedly pursuing a faulty land allotment policy for industrial houses, industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra denied any wrongdoing.
Mishra said land was allotted in tune with legal provisions and rubbished allegations that government land allotted through state-owned Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) for industrial projects were wrongly used.
The opposition, citing a recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in which it found loopholes with the land allotment policy of Idco, alleged that the ruling BJD bosses showed undue favours to industrial houses and allowed them to avail thousands of crores of rupees as loan by mortgaging land allotted to them with financial institutions.
They alleged that agriculture land was used for industrial purposes while land allotted for setting up industries was used for residential and other purposes violating the rule. Industries have come up on land without obtaining statutory clearances, they added. Both Congress and BJP members sought strong action against persons responsible for it.
Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati alleged that the government had given away land to ruling party members and bureaucrats. Senior BJP leader K V Singhdeo said, "The government has the power to issue no objection certificate (NOC) to industries to mortgage land to avail loans, but Idco does not have the power."
Replying to a debate, Mishra said Idco has cancelled land to 313 industrial units and issued show cause notices to another 1260 industrial units. He further said Idco had far allotted 5130.23 acre to 4297 small and medium industries in 106 industrial areas. Of these, 1656 industrial houses have not utilised their land due to various reasons.
According to him, Idco had allotted 19774.692 acre of government land and 34447.876 acre of private land to 94 companies that have signed MoUs with the state government and 133 non-MoU firms for establishing industries.