Orissa to examine Land auditing in industrial projects

Bhubaneswar, Feb 28 (UNI) The Orissa government will examine the Karnataka model of Land Auditing System (LAS) to decide the requirement of land for the industrial projects in the state, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Manmohan Samal said.

On the allegation of vast land acquired by the industrial houses prior to the submission of the DPR, Mr Samal said the Karnataka pattern will be examined by the government to ensure that no industrial houses acquired more land then their actual requirement.

The minister said his department would soon write to the Industry department to identify the industrial houses, which have not utilised the land acquired by them in the past for the project.

These houses would be asked to furnish details of their project plan on the unutilised land within a stipulated period failing which the additional land would be taken back, he added.

Addressing a workshop on 'Orissa Resettlement and Rehabilitation policy 2007', organised by the UNDP, Mr Samal said the state government has formulated a R&R policy 2006 to address the issue of displacement in a holistic manner.

The new policy was aimed at ensuring non accretion of adverse impacts on the people displaced by the projects and focusing a participatory approach towards development.

The state government, Mr Samal said had decided to implement the new RR policy in a phased manner adding that six mega industries in the private sector and three major irrigation projects in the government sector would be taken up during the first phase.

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