The Karnataka Cabinet has approved the execution of an absolute sale deed for the proposed sale of 3,667.31 acres of land to JSW Steel in Ballari district. The execution was completed under legal compulsions, stated H.K. Patil, Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, to the media.

“The government is under ‘legal compulsions’ to complete the sale deed. ‘There is a writ of mandamus’, and we have decided to execute the sale deed,” Patil said. Interestingly, Patil was a vocal opponent of the transfer and called for a re-examination of the proposal in 2019.

This decision to execute the sale deed came after the steel company approached the court seeking an order directing the state government to honour the sale-cum lease agreement.

The lease-cum sale agreement between the government and JSW Steel was executed in 2006-2007, but the government delayed carrying out the final sale in the following years. When the JD(S)-Congress coalition decided to sell land, the BJP opposed this, arguing that the land was being sold at an unacceptably low price. Later, when the BJP was in power, B.S. Yediyurappa’s Cabinet set up a new committee in November 2020 to review the sale, which was opposed, and the decision was put on hold a month later.

“Of the total 3,667.31 acres, 2,000.58 acres will be sold at 1.22 lakh in Kurekuppa and Toranagallu villages and 1,666.73 acres will be transferred at 1.5 lakh per acre in Musinayakanahalli Yerabanahalli and Toranagallu all within Sandur taluk,” said Patil.

Additionally, the cabinet has given in-principle clearance for two infrastructure projects in Bengaluru: a 250-foot sky deck for ₹500 crore and an underground 18.5-km tunnel from Hebbal to Central Silk Board Junction on Hosur Road, which will cost ₹12,690 crore.

(Inputs from PTI)

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