Karnataka Cabinet again decides to sell 3,667 acres to JSW Steel

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday decided to sell 3,667 acres of land in Ballari to the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel Ltd, India’s largest steelmaker by capacity, a deal that ran into controversy in the past.

The decision was taken under “legal compulsion” as the company had moved court, Law & Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said, briefing reporters. Patil had earlier opposed the plan to sell the land to JSW Steel.

The Cabinet decided to execute an absolute sale deed for 2,000.58 acres in Tornagallu and Kurekuppa villages, and for 1,666.73 acres at Tornagallu, Musenayakanahalli and Yarabanahalli villages of Sandur taluk in Ballari in favour of JSW Steel.

JSW Steel will get 2,000.58 acres at Rs 1.22 lakh per acre. It will get 1,666.73 acres at Rs 1.50 lakh per acre.

“JSW has filed a writ of mandamus. In that backdrop, we have decided to execute this absolute sale deed in favour of JSW. There’s a legal compulsion,” Patil said.

JSW Steel was allotted the land in two lease-cum-sale agreements dated July 2006 and October 2007 to set up an integrated steel plant.

As the company was said to have fulfilled all conditions, the JD(S)-Congress coalition, in May 2019, decided to sell the land. The BJP had then opposed the move, accusing the government of selling land at a “throwaway” price. Following uproar, the matter was referred to a Cabinet sub-committee the next month.

When the BJP came to power, the B S Yediyurappa Cabinet, in November 2020, formed another committee to look into the land deal. In April 2021, Yediyurappa’s Cabinet agreed to sell the land to JSW Steel. Again, following opposition, the decision was put on hold a month later.

“...the state government cannot refuse the execution of sale deed only on the ground of non-confirmation of the earlier Cabinet meeting decision dated April 26, 2021 in a subsequent meeting held on May 26, 2021,” Advocate-General K Shashi Kiran Shetty stated in his legal opinion to the government, giving his go-ahead to execute the absolute sale deed in favour of JSW Steel.

In another decision, the Cabinet decided to reduce the minimum period of sale deeds under lease-cum-sale agreements for small scale industries from 10 years to two.

It was also decided to implement the Raising And Accelerating MSME Productivity (RAMP) programme in the state at a cost of Rs 147.87 crore.