Tata Jamshedpur lease under lens

Days after striking the historic deal with Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, Tata Steel's land lease back home in Jamshedpur is being reviewed by the Jharkhand government.

The Jharkhand land and revenue department has decided to review the land lease for Jamshedpur, renewed last year by Arjun Munda's National Democratic Alliance government.

The Munda government had renewed the Jamshedpur land lease agreement, which was pending since 1996, for a period of 30 years on the same terms of the earlier lease document.

Sources in the Jharkhand government said the land and revenue department felt the renewal should be reviewed because it had been sanctioned by the previous government.

Land and Revenue Minister Dulal Bhuiyan told reporters in Jamshedpur he had asked principal secretary AK Basu during the state-level review meeting last Thursday to study the Tata lease agreement and submit a report on all aspects, including the revenue angle.

He said the state government would examine whether Jharkhand had benefitted from the renewal or had been deprived of the due revenue.

Tata Steel sources said all projects were being reviewed by the new government and the land lease renewal was part of this exercise. Tata Steel has an almost century-old relationship with Jamshedpur. On average, the steel major spends around Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) towards different community initiatives, including hospitals.

Though dubbed as a routine exercise by any new government, the move could be significant, since it is not known which way the Madhu Koda government will swing.

The United Progressive Alliance-led government he heads has decided to review all projects sanctioned under the earlier regime, including the plethora of memorandums of understanding for steel projects.

The government will assess all industrial projects and examine their merits. All 43 MoUs signed during the Munda regime, including Mittal Steel's, are under the scanner.

However, according to Mittal Steel India's chief executive officer Sanak Mishra, it was part of the system and there was no delay on this account. The company has zeroed in on two sites for a 12 million tonne steel plant in the state.