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Orissa Approaches SC On Vedanta University

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[The Orissa government on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order, which held that land acquisition procedures for the proposed Rs 15,000 crore Vedanta university project were illegal. The state government has filed an appeal against the 16 November decision of the Orissa High Court which quashed its land acquisition notification citing 17 issues. The High Court had also directed Vedanta to return the land awarded to them to their owners. At least two PILs and six individual petitions were filed in the High Court since 2007 challenging the state government's notification on the land acquisition procedures. The petitions said that Land Acquisition Company rules, 1963 had not been properly followed. The proposed multi-disciplinary university project would have caused extreme debilitating impact on the eco system as well as the local bio-diversity, the petitioners had contended. Congress leader Umaballav Rath had filed the first PIL in the HC challenging the varsity project, which was envisaged on 500 acres of temple land. The petitioners had also questioned the status of the company saying that it was not properly formed as per the Company's Act. The High Court had cited 17 issues and held that land acquisition procedure for Vedanta were illegal. Accordingly, the High Court quashed the land acquisition notifications and also the award proceedings in favour of the company and directed them to return the land to the orginal owners. The petitioners had pointed out that the proposed university project site, which was to come up near Puri about 60 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, was close to Balukhand Konark Black Buck Sanctuary and a river. They also objected to inclusion of a large chunk of land belonging to Lord Jagannath temple in the proposed site. Sterlite Foundation, a private limited company which subsequently changed its name to Vedanta Foundation in 2004, entered into an MoU with Orissa government on July 19, 2006 to set up a university near Puri. (PTI)