Business
Hundreds of crores spent in 23 years, yet NTPC Tandwa project’s future uncertain
Hundreds of crores have been spent in the last 23 years on setting up the National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) power plant at Tandwa in Jharkhand’s Chatra district, but till date no electricity has been generated from it.
Preparations were underway to start power generation from the first unit of the plant this month itself, but it seems unlikely due to a violent clash between the locals, whose properties were acquired for setting up the plant, and the police on March 7.
The agitated locals set ablaze 56 small and big vehicles deployed at the plant and vandalised the offices. A total of 27 people were injured from both sides in the clashes between the police and the agitating displaced people.
After the violent confrontation, the situation in the project and the surrounding areas are tense. The administration has imposed prohibitory orders in six villages affected by the project.
So far, seven people have been arrested in connection with the violence. Also, an FIR has been registered against 100 named and 800 unidentified persons.
Police are conducting flag marches in the areas around the project ever since the incident. However, 60 per cent of the staff are not coming to the office.
In such a situation, it is almost certain that the proposed trial of the first unit of the plant in March would be postponed.
The project, ever since its foundation stone was laid in 1999, has remained in disputes. People, whose properties were acquired for setting up the plant, have been holding protests for the last two decades raising demands such as financial compensation, rehabilitation and jobs.
On March 6, 1999, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid its foundation stone and people were hoping that a new chapter of development would begin in the area, which is infamous for Naxalism and backwardness. The target was to make the plant operational by 2002-2003.
Three units of the power plant are being installed here, aiming to produce 1,980 MW of electricity. And it was scheduled that the trial of the first unit, having the capacity of 660 MW, would commence in March 2022.
Equipped with modern technology, for the first time in the country, the thermal power plant is being established using the air-cooled condenser system technology that would bring down the water consumption to just 25 per cent.
With the completion of the project, apart from Jharkhand, electricity would also be supplied to Bihar, Odisha, Bengal and Northeast.
For the project, the land was mainly acquired from six villages and at that time the old law of land acquisition was in force.
Meanwhile, the government made a new law regarding land acquisition, wherein there is a provision that if the project for which the land has been acquired does not get started within five years, then the land will be returned to the farmers.
When the work of the project started after seven years due to delay in land acquisition and several other reasons, disputes erupted over compensation, rehabilitation, jobs to the affected. The work of the project continued to be affected due to dharnas, demonstrations, agitations.
In the last 23 years, there have been more than one hundred confrontations between the NTPC Management, Administration, Police and displaced persons. Also there were numerous incidents of firing, lathi charge and violence.
There were several agreements between NTPC, the administration and the villagers, but the dispute was never fully resolved.
In the meantime, compensation has been paid to most of the ryot or displaced persons. However, the project continued at a slow pace amid the regular interruptions.
About a year and a half ago, the dispute regarding the compensation for the acquired land erupted again. The organisation of the displaced locals started the agitation, saying the compensation received earlier was inadequate.
They intalled tents in front of the main gate of the NTPC project and have been continuously staging a sit-in for the last 14 months.
A senior official at NTPC says that the ryots from whom the land was acquired were given compensation in 2015 itself. “There is no such law that compensation should be given again for the same land. It’s just not possible.”
The agitating farmers have three main demands.
The first is that they should be paid compensation at the rate of Rs 20 lakh per acre and the ryots who have not been paid the compensation should be paid at the new rate along with interest.
The second demand is “each displaced family should be given a uniform rehabilitation package as presently the amount is being given to the people of different areas at different rates”.
Similarly their third demand is “Compensation in lieu of missing raiyati land, Gairmajarua Khas land, and houses, trees, ponds and wells situated on that land; 75 per cent grant to displaced ryots in NTPC-run schemes, and employment for every displaced family in NTPC”.
New Delhi, Nov 17: In a key development, Indian public sector oil companies have finalised a deal for imports of around 2.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) LPG for the contract year 2026, to be sourced from the US Gulf Coast, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday.
In a post on X social media platform, he said that in a historic first, “one of the largest and the world’s fastest growing LPG market opens up to the United States”.
“In our endeavour to provide secure affordable supplies of LPG to the people of India, we have been diversifying our LPG sourcing,” the minister said.
“In a significant development, Indian PSU oil companies have successfully concluded a 1-year-deal for imports of around 2.2 MTPA LPG, close to 10 per cent of our annual imports – for the contract year 2026, to be sourced from the US Gulf Coast – the first structured contract of US LPG for the Indian market,” Puri informed.
This purchase is based on using Mount Belvieu as the benchmark for LPG purchases and “a team of our officials from Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCl had visited the US and engaged in discussions with major US producers over the last few months, which have been concluded now”.
Under the leadership of PM Modi, PSU oil companies have been providing LPG at the lowest global prices to all our mothers and sisters.
“Even as global prices soared by over 60 per cent last year, PM Modi ensured that our Ujjwala consumers continued to receive LPG cylinder at just Rs 500-550 whereas the actual cost of the cylinder was over Rs 1,100,” said the minister,
The Government of India incurred the cost of over Rs 40,000 crore last year “in order to ensure our mothers and sisters did not feel the burden of rising international LPG prices”, he mentioned.
Business
Indian stock market opens higher as investors cheer NDA’s Bihar win; Bank Nifty hits new record
Mumbai, Nov 17: The Indian stock market began the week on a positive note as both the Sensex and Nifty opened in the green on Monday.
The rebound comes as investors show confidence amid the NDA’s win in the Bihar Elections 2025 and strong movement in select stocks.
The Sensex was seen trading at 84,759, up 196 points or 0.23 per cent. The Nifty also moved higher to 25,963, gaining 53 points or 0.21 per cent.
“On the weekly chart, the Nifty has shown a firm recovery from key support zones, closing above 25,900 and signaling a sideways-to-bullish bias,” experts said.
“Immediate support is placed at 25,800 and 25,700, offering opportunities to accumulate on dips, while resistance levels are seen at 26,000 and 26,100 — the latter acting as a critical breakout point. A sustained move above 26,100 could open the door for an upside extension toward the 26,250–26,400 zone in the coming weeks,” they added.
Major Sensex gainers in early trade included Kotak Bank, L&T, Titan Company, M&M, SBI, Tech Mahindra, and ITC, all rising up to 1 per cent.
On the other hand, Tata Motors PV was the biggest loser, slipping 6 per cent. Other laggards included Eternal, Ultratech Cement, TCS, Power Grid, and Infosys.
The broader market sentiment was also positive. The Nifty MidCap index rose 0.45 per cent, while the Nifty SmallCap index climbed 0.48 per cent.
Among sectoral indices, the Bank Nifty touched a fresh lifetime high of 58,830 after rising 0.5 per cent. The Nifty PSU Bank index gained 1.2 per cent, while the Nifty Private Bank and FMCG indices added 0.5 per cent each.
The Nifty Financial Services index also inched up 0.4 per cent.
Analysts said that the market opened with renewed strength, supported by banking stocks and improving investor sentiment.
“Q2 results declared so far indicate an uptrend in earnings growth. Net profits have grown by 10.8 per cent, which is the best in the last six quarters. This is a beat over earlier estimates. The present trends in consumption indicate that earnings will further improve in Q3,” market watchers mentioned.
New Delhi, Nov 15: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ocean Seven Buildtech Pvt. Ltd. (OSBPL) Managing Director Swaraj Singh Yadav after conducting searches at nine locations across Delhi-NCR and other regions in a money-laundering probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, an agency statement said on Saturday.
The action stems from allegations that Yadav diverted and laundered funds collected from homebuyers across multiple projects, including those under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
The searches on Thursday led to the recovery of Rs 86 lakh in cash, suspected to be proceeds of crime, along with incriminating documents and digital evidence.
According to the ED, Yadav orchestrated a large-scale diversion of homebuyer funds through fraudulent cancellation and resale of units at inflated prices, cash-based premiums collected outside banking channels, and misuse of escrow accounts.
He allegedly routed substantial sums into shell entities and concealed cash proceeds with relatives, the ED statement said.
Investigators also found a pattern of rapid liquidation of assets held personally and through company entities in Gurugram, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan, which the agency believes was intended to secure illicit gains and evade legal scrutiny.
His wife and children have already relocated to the United States, the probe revealed.
The agency said Yadav operated a dual-payment mechanism in the resale of PMAY flats and even in the sale of parking spaces — routing only nominal amounts through banks while collecting the bulk in cash. These activities form part of a wider probe linked to multiple FIRs alleging cheating, forgery, and other predicate offences.
Following his arrest, Yadav was produced before the Court of ASJ-06 at Patiala House Courts on Friday, in compliance with Supreme Court directions.
After detailed submissions from both sides and a pass-over granted to allow him legal assistance, the court sent him to ED custody for 14 days, until November 28.
The agency has been directed to produce him before the court at 2 p.m. on the date of expiry of remand.
The ED said it is pursuing further investigation to trace, freeze, and attach assets acquired from the laundered funds, to ensure recovery and restitution to affected homebuyers.
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