Jharkhand govt to soon decide on land parcels lying unused by big companies

The Jharkhand government will soon decide on large chunks of unused land parcels which are in possession of big companies, the assembly was informed on Friday. The state wants that these resources should be returned to their original owners, state minister Deepak Birua said in the assembly.

"Large chunks of land parcels were lying unused by big companies. The government is serious about the issue and we will soon take a decision in this regard," he replied to a query.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren has already expressed willingness to set up a commission to resolve the issue of unused land.


Earlier, Congress MLA Pradip Yadav raised the issue in the House and said the Centre's Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 provisions that if land, acquired by any company, is not utilised for five years, then it should be returned to the original owner or should go to land bank.

"But here, land parcels acquired from original owners are not utilised for years and these are not being returned," he said.

Yadav also claimed that the provision of returning such land parcels to their original owners was removed in the state.

He sought to know whether the government would bring an amendment to the state's rules.

Leader of Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri raised an objection before Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato on discussion on important bills and issues without the presence of 18 BJP MLAs.

He said the BJP legislators had earlier expressed willingness to speak on such issues and it was not fair to suspend them.

Meanwhile, 18 suspended BJP MLAs staged a dharna in front of the chief minister's chamber on the assembly premises in protest against their suspension.

Eighteen Jharkhand BJP MLAs were on Thursday suspended from the assembly for a day and subsequently removed by marshals after they refused to leave the House.

The Speaker acted against the BJP legislators after they disrupted the House proceedings in protest against the eviction of opposition MLAs by marshals the previous day and Chief Minister Hemant Soren's "refusal" to address their questions.

Leader of the Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri had alleged that a "dictatorship" was prevailing in Jharkhand and claimed that action was taken against BJP legislators at the behest of the JMM-led ruling dispensation.