PMK demands halt to NLC, IPCOT land acquisition

Chennai: PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Sunday urged the Tamil Nadu government to immediately scrap its notifications to acquire additional lands for a new SIPCOT industrial complex and the expansion of NLC mines in Cuddalore district, warning of mass agitations if the decision is not reversed.

In a press statement, Anbumani strongly condemned the state government’s latest notification to acquire 164.20 acres of land in Thiyagavalli and Kudikadu villages. “This acquisition comes in addition to the 1,097 acres previously notified for setting up a second SIPCOT complex across 1,119 acres in the region”, he added. “Cuddalore already hosts a 2,625-acre SIPCOT facility. Adding this proposed 1,283-acre expansion will create a massive 3,968-acre industrial belt-making it the largest in Tamil Nadu, surpassing even Oragadam,” the PMK leader stated.

“This is not development for Cuddalore, it is an environmental and social disaster,” he said. The former union minister highlighted that while 75 per cent of the newly notified 164 acres were previously purchased at low rates by two private corporations, local farmers and residents have long demanded the return of these lands. nstead, the government is moving to forcibly acquire them. Anbumani also raised serious concerns over separate notifications issued to acquire 12.60 acres (68 plots) in Kangaikondan village for NLC mine-1 expansion and 3.21 acres (77 plots) in Vanathirayapuram village for mine-1A expansion.

Pointing out that these areas consist entirely of residential plots, he warned that the move would render over a hundred families homeless. Critiquing the environmental impact, the PMK chief noted that untreated effluents from the existing SIPCOT units have severely contaminated local soil, air, and groundwater, leading to dangerous levels of cancer-causing dioxins in local produce and milk.

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