TN Govt will not acquire farm lands for setting up IT Parks:

Chennai, Jan 27 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today assured the State Assembly that the government would not acquire farm lands for the purpose of setting up industries or Information Technology Parks.

Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address, Mr Karunanidhi, obviously refering to protests for acquiring lands for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs), said acquisition of lands for setting up industries have become a big problem now.

The state government, however, never intended to acquire lands as it wished. It always wanted to take all sections of the society into confidence before acquiring lands as it did not want a ''repeat of West Bengal'' in the state, Mr Karunanidhi said while giving details of lands acquired for setting up IT Parks in second tier cities.

At the same time, leaders of various political parties should realise that the state could not afford to say no to land acqusition and setting up of industries, as industrial development was also essential for the growth of the state and employment generation, he said.

''The government is certainly not for driving away the poor to build bungalows for the rich,'' Mr Karunanidhi said and sought the cooperation of political parties whenever the government acquired lands for industries and IT Parks.

He said the government was keen on setting up IT parks in second tier cities like Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Salem and Tirunelveli. While lands were acquired for IT parks in Coimbatore, Tiruchirapalli and Madurai, the process was on in other cities, he said.

The government is also considering transferring the ownership of 200 acres of land of Madurai Kamaraj University to the state owned ELCOT for setting up IT Park, the Chief Minister said.

UNI