Belagavi: The government will recover lands allotted to more than 500 industries for not starting their ventures even after several years of sanction, Large and Medium Industries Minister Murugesh R Nirani on Friday announced in the assembly here.

Replying to Congress MLA NH Shivashankar Reddy’s query in the assembly, Nirani said the government has already identified the allotted lands where industries were not started even after 5 to 20 years of sanction and those will be recovered.

"Sale deed will not be done till they start the industries in full scale and they cannot use the industrial land for real estate purposes, '' he said. The minister also said 15 percent of industrial land must be reserved for residential purposes.

Replying to MLA S Ramappa’s query, Nirani denied the role of middlemen in the land acquisition process and said that compensation will be paid to farmers directly.

The minister further added that the state level single window agency has approved 16 projects in Harihar taluk with an expected investment of Rs 217.34 crore and creation of 908 jobs.

"Cargill has set up a starch manufacturing unit at a cost of Rs 630 crore and 85 percent Kannadigas are employed. Government has approved Mangaluru Refinery Petrochemicals Companies 2G ethanol unit at a cost of Rs 966 crore. 47 acres of land has been allotted and lease deed process is underway," Nirani stated.

Reiterating the government's position on providing jobs to local people, Nirani, while replying to MLA Amrut Desai, said that the government is committed to provide jobs to locals as per Dr Sarojini Mahishi report and also jobs to the kith and kin of farmers who sold land for industries.