Karnataka Cabinet stalls Jindal land deal

The Karnataka Cabinet has put on hold its previous decision to sell 3,667 acres of land to JSW Steel Ltd in Ballari amid opposition from within the ruling BJP and petitions pending in various courts.

"We had taken a decision in the previous Cabinet (to sell the land). The decision is now on hold as it was not confirmed in this Cabinet meeting," Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, briefing reporters.

On April 26, the Cabinet agreed to sell 3,667 acres of land allotted to the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel Ltd in Ballari, and the saffron party had opposed when it was in the opposition. This land deal had run into controversy in 2019 when the Congress-JD(S) coalition wanted to go ahead with the lease-cum-sale agreement.

This decision came after party MLAs wrote to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa earlier this month urging the government to drop the land deal. An activist has also filed a Public Interest Litigation on this and based on a High Court direction, notices were served to all Cabinet ministers.

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"The Cabinet, in its wisdom looking into the pending cases, has taken this decision," Bommai said, noting that a petition on the issue was also pending in the Supreme Court.

On whether the state can alter its decision in the future, Bommai said that it was unclear. "There are a lot of cases...Based on the outcome of cases, we will take a decision in the future," he said.

In 2005-06, the government decided to give on lease-cum-sale arrangement 2,000.58 acres of land to JSW Steel. In 2007, when HD Kumaraswamy was the chief minister and Yediyurappa the industries minister, another 1,666.73 acres were allotted to the company at Toranagallu, Kurekuppa, Moosenayakanahalli and Yarabanahalli villages in the Ballari district.

In 2019, the Congress-JD(S) coalition decided to convert the lease into a sale. The BJP, then in the opposition, had accused the coalition of selling the land at a throwaway price of Rs 1.22-1.50 lakh per acre.

Some BJP MLAs went up in arms after the Yediyurappa Cabinet took a U-turn and approved the land deal. Earlier this month, BJP MLAs Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, Arvind Bellad, K Poornima, Uday Garudachar and others wrote a strongly-worded letter to Yediyurappa, terming the decision as “against the interest of the state” and that it was contrary to the BJP’s fight against corruption.