Belagavi(PTI): Karnataka Large and Medium Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani on Friday said the government would recover lands allotted to more than 500 industries for not starting their ventures even after several years of approving the project.

Replying to Congress MLA N H Shivashankar Reddy's query in the State Assembly, Nirani said the government has already identified the allotted lands where industries were not started even after five to 20 years of sanction.

Sale deed will not be done till they start the industries in full scale and they cannot use the industrial land for real estate purpose. Else we will recover the land," he said.

The Minister further said 15 per cent 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 compensation is paid to farmers directly.

He said the State-level single-window agency has approved 16 projects in Harihar Taluk in Davangere district with an expected investment of Rs 217.34 crore and creation of 908 jobs.

Cargill has set up starch manufacturing unit at a cost of Rs 630 crore and 85 per cent Kannadigas are employed. The government has approved Mangaluru Refinery Petro Chemicals Company's 2G ethanol unit at a cost of Rs 966 crore and 47 acres of land has been allotted and lease deed process is under way, Nirani told the House.

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

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New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi BJP Saturday accused AAP leaders of circulating "edited" videos to tarnish the image of their own party MP Swati Maliwal, who has accused an aide of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of assaulting her.

It is regrettable that "edited" videos are being circulated on social media groups since Friday in an attempt to "defame" Maliwal who is a member of the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva claimed.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi Police arrested Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar who has been accused by Maliwal of assaulting her at the CM's residence on Monday.

A couple of videos from the chief minister's residence from the day of the incident have surfaced on social media, one showed Maliwal having an argument with security personnel, while the other showed her walking out of the CM's residence in the Civil Lines.

"Now that the entire Aam Aadmi Party is tarnishing the image of Swati Maliwal, it's time Kejriwal comes forward and speaks on the matter," Sachdeva said.

The AAP has accused Maliwal of lying and becoming a part of the BJP conspiracy to frame Kejriwal in a fake case in the midst of elections.

Sachdeva said now that Kejriwal's aide has been arrested by police, many "dirty pages" of AAP's politics will become public.

If the AAP is trying to implicate Maliwal by circulating "edited" videos, it would be better for the Delhi Police to immediately take possession of the complete CCTV footage of the chief minister's residence, Sachdeva said.

He charged that Maliwal is not the first woman leader of the AAP that the party has has defamed.

Earlier, they also raised questions about Kiran Bedi, Shazia Ilmi and Richa Pandey who have all left the AAP, Sachdeva added.