BANGALORE: The Supreme Court asking for authorities to ‘scrap’ the Land Acquisition Act and terming it as a ‘fraud’ on account of ‘industrialisation and residential schemes’ on Thursday, may threaten to dent Karnataka’s ‘land bank’ aspirations.Former Industries Minister of the State, Murgesh Nirani diligently pursued acquiring of land for industrial purposes to facilitate investments and establishments without delays. The same was assured in the maiden Global Investors Meet (GIM) 2010 which had clocked in over Rs 3 lakh crores worth of investments. The land bank was pursued to ensure that they surpass the Rs 5 lakh investment barrier in the next edition of GIM to be held in 2012.Nirani had made it a point to mention their land bank policy to every prospective investor, which included Business majors and even visiting delegates. During the visit of the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Borut Pahor in June this year, Nirani had stated that they had ‘already notified 83,000 acres, out of the 1 lakh acres identified, to add to their land bank, which was readily available for industries willing to set shop in the state’.The State saw the dropping of acquisition plans of more than 3,000 acres for the controversial POSCO project as well. Pejawar Math Sri Viswesha Tirtha Swami had protested against the acquisition of 2,000 acres in Mangalore for the creation of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) as well, which later resulted in the government dropping the plans. The SC is reported to have cited the ‘forcible’ acquisition of farmers lands and the problems coming out of the same. The court is said to have stated this during the hearing of 82 acres being forcibly acquired for the leather industry in Hapur in Uttar Pradesh.
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