Calcutta, Nov. 17: The Centre has extended till next March a little-known moratorium on setting up “potentially polluting” units in Haldia and Asansol, making it all the more difficult to attract investments in sectors closely identified with the two industrial towns.

New Delhi: Reacting to a TOI report on the conflict of interest of Central Pollution Control Board chairman, environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan has said she will inquire into the facts.

On Thursday, TOI had reported the attempt by CPCB chairman S P Gautum to cash in on a patent he held privately
by doing a revenue sharing deal with the apex government authority and then passing a directive forcing leather industry to buy the untested technology. Natarajan told TOI, “I have read the news and will inquire into the facts behind the case.”

New Delhi: Chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board S P Gautam sold a patent he held privately on a technology to the apex authority on a revenue sharing basis and then passed a directive in his official capacity asking the leather industry to buy the expensive and untested know-how.

Mandated to create industrial opportunities in the state, the MIDC or Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has been doing quite the opposite of late—winding up its own plans to set up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) that promised thousands of jobs and crores of export earnings. In May, it applied to withdraw proposals for SEZs in the textile sector in Yavatmal and Solapur, as well as an SEZ in the leather sector in Osmanabad.

Urgency Clause Invoked To Develop Leather City
New Delhi: After quashing acquisition of land in Noida Extension, the Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside acquisition of 71 acres by UP government in Ghaziabad's Hapur area for setting up Leather City to relocate all bone mills and allied industries there.

Governments are having a tough time in the apex court defending acquisition of land under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, for they had mostly invoked the urgency clause without giving an opportunity to land owners to express their grievances.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed Uttar Pradesh government’s notification for land acquisition of three villages of Ghaziabad after the villagers approached court against setting up of a ‘leather city’ on the acquired land by Hapur Pilkhuwa Development Authority (HPDA).

The court has quashed the notification of acquisition of 28.804 hectares of land of Chitoli, Imtori and Sabli village of Hapur. The authority had acquired 82 hectares of land for the leather city.

The Supreme Court has set aside the Uttar Pradesh government’s notifications for acquiring land in Ghaziabad for leather industry.

The court said in the light of the facts of the case, the State was not justified in invoking the urgency provision under the Land Acquisition Act.

The court acted on petitions filed by villagers against the State Government’s notifications in 2006 and 2007 to acquire the land for the ‘public purpose’ of the planned development of a Leather City Project by invoking the Act's urgency provision.