Date:22/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/22/stories/2007062253980300.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Others

Land for Jindal opposed

Correspondent

VIZIANAGARAM: The CPI(M) has described the Cabinet decision to allot 1,048 acres of land to Jindal alumina refinery and approve the rehabilitation package as “undemocratic.”

At a press conference on Thursday, party secretary M. Krishna Murty said that 98 per cent of people opposed the factory at all the meetings conducted by officials and also at the public hearing on June 4.

Yet, the government was going ahead by allotting land and approving the package. Further, when there was no clearance for mining from the Centre, why did the government allot land to the Jindals, he asked.

He said when the management had already made it clear that 750 people would be employed on regular basis, how could it provide jobs to every member of the 600 families to be displaced, who are illiterate and unskilled?.

Agitation

He also threatened to launch an agitation along with other parties if water from either Thatipudi or Raiwada was sold to the factory by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation.