In yet another glaring example of how successive governments in Karnataka bend over backwards for a privileged few, the Congress government now appears to be extending undue support to MSPL Limited. This company has already failed spectacularly to deliver on its industrial promises, despite being handed massive chunks of government land for free.
For years, MSPL’s subsidiary, AARESS Iron & Steel Limited, has occupied more than 900 acres of valuable land, originally allocated for the construction of an iron and steel plant in North Karnataka. Not only did the company fail to develop any meaningful industry on that land, but shockingly, neither the previous BJP regime nor the current Congress government has bothered to reclaim it a clear violation of public interest and land policy.
Now, the same company is set to benefit yet again, with the state’s Revenue Department moving at breakneck speed to hand over 191.73 acres of additional government land in Sandur taluk, Ballari district. According to official documents that have come to light, this new allotment is being processed on a lease basis across Kalingeri and Ankamanal villages, despite MSPL’s abysmally poor track record.
What makes this worse is the disturbing fact that senior ministers, including Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, have reportedly held discussions to push this allotment through — raising serious questions about the government’s priorities. Are we to believe there are no other deserving industries or local entrepreneurs who could have made better use of this land for the promised job creation?
Same old promises, same old betrayal
The company claims this time it plans to set up a massive 5 MTPA and 3 MTPA iron ore processing unit. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the same company made similar promises before. In 2008 and 2010, the MSPL group was allotted 922 acres across the Koppal district for a Rs 4,500 crore project, which was hyped as the single biggest investment in North Karnataka. A decade later, not a single functional unit stands on that land.
While farmers who lost their land for this phantom project fought in court, the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) and Revenue Department turned a blind eye. Astonishingly, the government and its agencies used pending court cases as a convenient excuse not to reclaim the unused land — when in reality, the court proceedings did not cover the majority of the land lying idle.
The value of this wasted land is estimated at a whopping Rs 270 crore — public wealth that has benefitted no one except a private company that continues to enjoy government patronage.
Officers looked the other way
The rot doesn’t stop there. Officials from the Revenue Department and KIADB have repeatedly failed to act on blatant violations of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act. In the Koppal fiasco, land originally classified as agricultural was sold and transferred under exemptions for industrial use — only for the company to do nothing for over a decade.
During the Legislative Assembly Estimates Committee hearings, the KIADB CEO himself had to admit that no industry had come forward for the 900 acres allocated. The Sub-Divisional Officer of Koppal had also confirmed that the land remained unused. Yet, there has been no penalty, no cancellation of allotment, and no blacklisting of the company.
What’s worse is that the same company was permitted to develop an aerodrome on land marked for industrial development under KIADB jurisdiction another move that raises more questions than answers. When asked basic questions by the committee such as who owned the land, whether it had been purchased, gifted, or sanctioned under Section 109 officials from the Revenue and Industries Department had no clear answers, triggering suspicions of fraud and cover-ups.
MLA KM Shivalingegowda rightly called out these evasive responses, warning that there could be large-scale irregularities that officials were deliberately hiding. His suspicions ring true — the pattern of convenient silence and inaction suggests collusion, not incompetence.
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