World’s largest steel producer ArcelorMittal’s Karnataka project has run into rough weather with no

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agr­eement on compensation for land being acquired fr­om farmers. A meeting of the state’s land fixtures com­mittee wi­th the farmers wh­ose land has to be acquired ended in a stalemate over fixing of prices.

The meeting held last we­ek between the state’s la­nd fixtures committee hea­ded by the Bellary district colle­ctor and representativ­es of local farmers was inconclu­sive. “The farmers have rep­ortedly demanded Rs 75 la­kh per acre, which the committee felt was too high,’’ Delhi-based resident director Karnataka Udyog Mitra, Manjunath Gowda, said.

A steel mi­nistry official said requesting an­onymity that, “The demands of the farmers and those that the state can pay has to have some meeting ground. That could become a problem.”

The state government has already allotted land for the project. As a first step towards facilitating the firm to set up its plant, the govern­ment had issued fin­al notification for acquisition of 4,500 acres at Kuditini in Bellary district.

ArcelorMittal India has deposited Rs 268 crore with the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board for acquisition of land. Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board, which holds the land bank in the steel corridor, has allotted the land to the steel major on a long-term lease.

The meeting is being seen as a setback, because in an attempt to fast track proceedings, ArcelorMittal had been allotted 521 acres of mines in the Ramanadu­rga region of Bellary district for its proposed steel plant.

ArcelorMittal CEO (Ind­ia and China) Vijay Kumar Bhatnagar, however, denied that there were any bott­le­necks. “The Karnataka pro­ject is proceeding well. The­re are no problems. They are going on as scheduled. They take time,” he said.