- Responding to a query raised by Congress MLA Sanjay Solanki during Question Hour, Panchal informed the House that the Centre had, in March 2021, approved “diversion” of 65.73 hectares of forest land to ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) India, in Surat’s Hazira area under The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR, MARCH 22
The ruling BJP and the Main opposition Congress on Tuesday engaged in a heated debate in the Gujarat Assembly on allotment of forest land to steel conglomerate ArcelorMittal Group with both parties accusing each other of favouring such companies.
While Minister of State for Forest and Environment Jagdish Panchal accused previous Congress governments of allotting over 11,000 hectares of forest land to industries and for mining, Congress MLAs accused the BJP government of going soft on such corporates.
Responding to a query raised by Congress MLA Sanjay Solanki during Question Hour, Panchal informed the House that the Centre had, in March 2021, approved “diversion” of 65.73 hectares of forest land to ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) India, in Surat’s Hazira area under The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
The minister added that the government, as per provisions of the Act, had collected Rs 6.93 crore towards “compensatory afforestation” and acquired 206.38 hectares of land in Bhuj taluka of Kutch district from the same company against 65.73 hectares forest land allotted to it.
Targeting the Congress, Panchal said the Forest (Conservation) Act, under which forest land is allotted for industrial use, came into force in 1980 when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister.
“The Congress raises this issue of ArcelorMittal at regular intervals. I want to tell them the Act came into force when Indira Gandhi was PM in 1980. Between 1980 and 1995, when Congress was in power in Gujarat, 11,710 hectares of forest land were diverted for industrial and mining use,” said Panchal.
He also claimed the Congress had tried to divert a huge tract of land of a wildlife sanctuary in the state in the past but these plans were eventually foiled by the courts.
“After the BJP came to power in 1995 in Gujarat, only 3,054 hectares of forest land has been allotted for industries. A total of 3,023 hectares were given for irrigation projects, 9,396 hectares for roads and 39,750 hectares to the SC/ST farmers. We gave only 65.73 hectares to ArcelorMittal Group, much less than what the Congress gave away,” said Panchal.
Countering the BJP government’s claims, Congress MLA Anand Chaudhary alleged the steel major, having its plant in Hazira, had “encroached” on the said forest land in 2010, when the steel mill was under Essar Steel, and later the government regularised it in 2021.
Responding to Chaudhary, the minister said the company was slapped with a penalty as soon as the encroachment came light.
Unimpressed by the minister’s answer, Congress MLA and party whip CJ Chavda said the government deliberately ignored the encroachment and did not impose a heavy penalty as prescribed in the Act.
Deputy LoP Shailesh Parmar also accused the BJP government of being lenient towards the company by not collecting heavy penalties.
“The government gave undue benefit of Rs 4,968 crore to the company by diverting this land to it. The Act clearly says the government must collect Rs 10 lakh per hectare towards penalty in such cases. So why did you not collect that penalty,” asked Parmar.
Responding to the senior Congress MLA, Panchal said they have collected Rs 7.5 lakh per hectare as per the provisions of the Act.
“As against 65 hectares, we have acquired 206 hectares of land from the company, which is three times the land diverted to it. I want to clarify that under the Act, the legal status of the land does not change if land is diverted. This means the owner of the land remains the forest department, not the company,” said Panchal.
