Reliance not to purchase govt land in Punjab

Chandigarh, Oct 19: Keeping the speculation at rest about Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) creating six agro-based hubs in Punjab by December end, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today said that the industrial giant was not being given any government land in the state.

When asked about the prospects of the Reliance keeping its words of creating such hubs to give boost to the state's agriculture sector, Capt Singh said at a press conference here that the government had nothing to do with Reliance now as the company had now conveyed that it would be purchasing land on its own from the people.

''They (Reliance) conveyed to us that the deal for purchasing the government land has already brought a bad name to them,'' the chief minister said.

The Punjab government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with RIL earlier this year, marking a Rs 500 crore land deal for the transfer of certain land pieces for such agro-hubs at highly concessional rates.

The deal had been challenged in the Punjab and Haryana high court by the opposition Akali legislators, which was still pending for a final court verdict.

As per the MoU, there was a proposal to transfer the land owned by the Punjab Mandi Board, Punjab State Industrial Exports Corporation (PSIEC) and several pieces of Panchayat lands to Reliance for setting up agro hubs.

Six of such hubs were announced for being set up in the state by the end of December this year.

According to sources, the Reliance has not yet stepped into the purchase of agricultural land anywhere in the state, while it was only purchasing commodities like wheat and rice from the open market during the procurement seasons.

The coming in of Reliance had been given much hype by the Amarinder Singh government, who stated that Reliance would be setting up certain projects to give boost to the state's agriculture sector.

UNI