Centre tries to take over 400 acres of FACT land

KOCHI: The Union government is trying to usurp 408 acres of land belonging to Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd as part of recovering the Rs 1,000-crore loan given to the ailing public sector company, according to CPM leader K. Chandran Pillai.  The CPM-led LDF government was also trying to take over 600 acres of the company’s land,  Mr Pillai, who is the convener of the  ‘Save FACT Action Committee,’ told reporters here. The Union government has given a loan of Rs 1,000 crore  to FACT after the company mortgaged 408 acres of land to the government.

The repayment schedule of the principal and interest of the loan begins from this month. But the company is unable to meet the obligation due to its precarious financial position  following the poor demand for its products in the wake of the acute drought situation in South Indian states. Instead of helping the company,  the government is trying to use the opportunity to take over 408 acres of the land, he said. “The committee will not allow the government to take over the land in a surreptitious manner,”  Mr. Pillai said.

He  alleged that an attempt was  on to acquire 170 acres of the FACT land at throwaway price by Kochi Refineries Ltd. According to the earlier understanding,  FACT was to raise part of the money needed for its expansion projects by selling the land to Kochi Refineries. “Now an attempt is on to go back from this understanding,”  he added. The government should facilitate the sanctioning of expansion projects of FACT which included the urea and ammonium plants instead of disposing  of its land worth thousands of crores of rupees.  A  sit-in protest will be held at Ambalamedu junction on Tuesday by the workers and the local people against the move by the central and state governments, he said.