Chennai, September 23
After witnessing the Left Front’s fiasco in West Bengal over land acquisition for Tata’s small car project at Singur, in a paradigm shift the Tamil Nadu government has asked the Tata group to directly negotiate with the farmers and acquire land for its Rs 2,500 crore titanium dioxide project in southern part of the state instead of being a party to it.
Tamil Nadu chief secretary L.K Tripathy said, “The Tatas will directly procure the land and they have appointed private groups to negotiate with the sellers. The government will not be party to such deals to procure land for the project. The negotiated price will be according to the market rates and the sellers will benefit from such deals.”
The state government had earlier planned to acquire 10,000 acres of land on its own to hand it over to the Tata group. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi took pains to explain the benefits of the project but later realised that it was better not to repeat the “Singur experience” in Tamil Nadu.
Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu have threatened to start a statewide agitation as they feel that farmers in the two districts of Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli will be deprived of their livelihood.
Opposition Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) general secretary Vaiko, and actor-turned-politician Sarath Kumar, who left the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to form his own political party, alleged that most of the 10,000 acres of land that the state government sought to take over for the Tata chemical project was cultivable and would deprive the farmers of their livelihood.
The Tata group’s project is to mine ilmenite, an ore of titanium, from the sands of the two districts in southern Tamil Nadu, and extract titanium, which will be used to manufacture titanium dioxide, a white pigment that can be used as applications in paints and inks.
Vaiko argued, “It is impossible to give jobs to thousands of people. The government must give up its plan to acquire land from them; otherwise, there will be another Nandigram in Tamil Nadu.”
He contended that acquiring coastal land and handing it over for the chemical project would lead to the evacuation of as many as 40,000 families from fertile land.
He pointed out, “These people are dependent on agricultural and palm products, and will lose their livelihood, if displaced. Moreover, such large scale displacement will also result in sea water incursion into agricultural land.”
On the other hand Sarath Kumar, who belongs to the Nadar community, which is dominant in the two districts, alleged that the land would be acquired at very low rates depriving thousands of agrarian families.
He apprehended that though the company had promised to employ one person from each displaced family, the chemical project could at the most generate employment for only 1,000 persons.
However, Tripathy said 70 per cent of the people of Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli district were in favour of the project and the government committee had conducted a survey in the presence of mediapersons and had given the feedback to Chief Minister and the draft proposal was nearing finalisation.
The Tata group too maintains that it would be an eco-friendly project and feel that all environmental aspects had been taken into account before it ventured into the project. A Tata official stated that titanium would be extracted in a scientific manner without causing any environmental hazards.
“The project area will not disturb any existing dwellings, religious places and public roads. The residents of the area will continue to live without any disturbance due to this project. The project is in the rain shadow zone. Due to non-availability of water and sandy nature of soil, the potential for farming is limited,” he said.
He said, “We will develop the mined-out land and improve the vegetation cover in the area. The project activity will make the entire area greener.”
In support of the project, Tripathy said the lands there were mostly barren and only waste, dry and arid lands would be procured for the project and the policy was not to touch agricultural land as far as possible.
He said there was a stressing need to generate employment for the educated youth in the rural areas and the “valuable mineral sands in the region need to be exploited and there will be value addition to the natural resources” as the project comes through.
