The Hindu Business Line : Plea to take back land allotted to Hindujas

The former Union Power Secretary Mr E.A.S. Sarma, who has settled here after retirement, has in a letter to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, appealed to the latter to take back immediately the land allotted to the Hindujas in the early nineties for setting up a power plant in the vicinity of Visakhapatnam.

Land Acquisition

Mr Sarma said in the letter that the land should either be distributed to the landless poor or re-allotted to the Andhra Pradesh Generation Corporation (Genco) or the NTPC for setting up power plants. Referring to reports appearing in a section of the press that the Hindujas had sought more land to set up a thermal plant and the State Government was seriously considering it, he said such a move would be disastrous.

He said in the letter, “Hindujas have no experience in the power sector. Their power project cannot fulfill the conditions laid down by the Union Government in their revised sovereign counter guarantee sanctioned in 1998 during my tenure as the Union Power Secretary. The Hinduja power project, if it comes up at all, is going to cost the State heavily and the burden will have to be passed onto the consumers. Your Government should impose a penalty on the Hindujas for holding on to the land for such a long time, without any public purpose being served. Under the land acquisition law, strictly, the land should be restored to the original owners or assigned to the poor.”

He urged the Chief Minister to guard himself against “the designs of the group.” He said any more delay on the part of the State Government in taking back the land would be inexcusable.

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