MLAs allege land allotted free of cost, Minister says no info *Rs 1650 cr investment was to generate 985 jobs Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Mar 8: Muttiah Muralitharan, a Sri Lankan former off-spin bowler who holds record of taking 800 wickets in test cricket, has backed out from over Rs 1650 crore worth investments in Kathua under National Sector Industrial Policy 2021 as incentives under the scheme which ended in September last year haven’t been extended so far. Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp The issue today figured in the Legislative Assembly during the Question Hour when CPM MLA MY Tarigami, without naming Muralitharan, wanted to know whether it’s correct that a Sri Lankan cricketer has been allotted free of cost land at Kathua for installation of plant while local extended families were not being even given five marlas land for construction of houses under Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana (PMAY). BJP MLA from Jasrota (Kathua) Rajiv Jasrotia, former Minister, said the occupants of Evacuee Property and other State land have been evicted without any compensation and same land has been allotted to others. He said there has been a High Court judgment that even those in possession of Government land have to be given compensation at the time of eviction. Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader GA Mir said this is a serious issue that a non-Indian cricketer has been allotted land in Kathua without a penny and called for half an hour discussion on the subject. AAP MLA Mehraj Malik said even land owned by the people is being snatched from them. Meanwhile, details gathered by the Excelsior from Industries and Commerce department revealed that Muralitharan only a day before (March 6) has applied for backing out from the proposal for installation of his company Ceylon Beverages’ bottle-filling and aluminium can manufacturing unit in Kathua over 206 kanals land at the cost of Rs 1650 crore. “Muralitharan will now be installing the bottling and can manufacturing plant at Pune,” they said. It was one of the biggest plant and investments in Kathua which was to give employment to 985 persons, they added. Ceylon Beverage Can Pvt. Ltd. is registered in Chennai and already has a unit in Mysore. As per the officials, Rs 28,400 crore worth incentives under the Industrial Development Scheme ended in September last year and the UT Government had then sought increase in incentives but an approval hasn’t been received so far from the Centre. After waiting for some time, Muralitharan decided to shift the plant to Pune. He applied for backing out of the investment proposal on March 6, they said. It may be mentioned here that the Government has received tremendous response in industrial investments in Jammu and Kashmir after announcement of new industrial development scheme by the Central Government in 2021 worth Rs 28,400 crore incentives which exhausted in September last year. However, a large number of investment proposals are still pending and the Government is confident that the amount of incentives would be increased by the Centre. Meanwhile, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj and Agriculture Production, Javed Ahmad Dar said the Government has no information that a former Sri Lankan cricketer was provided a land “free of cost” in the Union Territory to set up an industrial unit and that he would look into it. He made the statement in the Assembly in reaction to the charges leveled by GA Mir and MY Tarigami. “This is a matter related to the Revenue Department. We do not have any information, and we will look into it to know the facts,” he said. Earlier, the Minister said the families having no land of their own are being provided five marlas of land for the construction of residential houses under PMAY. “The land is provided subject to the verification by the Revenue department,” Dar said. He said 498 families have been allotted land by the Revenue department under the Awas-plus category of PMAY-G across the UT, while 442 cases are under consideration. Of the total 3,673 cases, 2,727 cases were rejected, the Minister said. He said the extended families of the landless are likely to be considered for allotment subject to eligibility.