Industry bodies in Mysuru have begun bringing pressure on the State government to withdraw the 100 acres of land handed over to Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) in the city in the wake of the Centre’s decision to disinvest in the public sector company.
At an interactive session with Minister for Large and Medium Industries Jagadish Shettar in Mysuru on Sunday, former MLA and President of Mysuru Industries Association (MIA) Vasu said the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) had allotted 100 acres of land to BEML for the company's housing project a couple of years ago.
The land had not been used by the public sector company and is lying vacant as its employees were given sites through a housing co-operative society formed for the purpose.
With the Centre deciding to divest a good portion of its stake in the public sector company, the land parcel allotted to BEML will also go to the private entity as part of the disinvestment process, Mr. Vasu said while urging Mr Shettar to withdraw the allotment. The land is situated near the Outer Ring Road.
BEML, which manufactures mining equipment, has also diversified into producing rail coaches and defence production. The public sector company’s Mysuru unit manufactures heavy duty diesel engines for earth moving, mining and construction machinery and defence equipment, besides dumpers of 35 to 100 tonne capacity and a range of motor graders and water sprinklers.
MIA Secretary Suresh Kumar Jain said the land was allotted to BEML in 1990s through lease-cum-sale at a throwaway price for the specific purpose of providing housing facilities to its employees.
With BEML employees preferring sites which they could own, through a co-operative society, instead of residential quarters which they would have to vacate, the housing project had been dropped, Mr. Jain said.
The allotment of land to BEML should be withdrawn in the same manner as the KIADB reclaims industrial land when the allottee fails to use it for the purpose for which it has been given. “When you can withdraw land allotted to industrialists if they don’t implement the project in two years, you can also withdraw the land allotted to BEML”, he said.
“If the land is withdrawn, it will become public property and will be available for public use. Or else, it will be of real estate value”, he said.
Meanwhile, the scarcity of land for industries in Mysuru has led to demands for withdrawal of unused land allotted to different companies. A similar demand was made at the interactive session to withdraw 100 acres of land allotted to Wipro by representatives of different industry bodies.
However, Mr. Jain said sought to draw a distinction between land allotted to BEML and Wipro. BEML was allotted land from the land bank already acquired by KIADB whereas the land allotment to Wipro was after the company made the payment for acquisition of available land for setting up a single unit complex. Even the development charges of the land had been borne by Wipro, Mr. Jain said.