Govt’s SEZ policy is a realty scam, says Sharad Yadav
NEW DELHI, SEPT 22: Calling the country’s special economic zone (SEZ) policy a real estate scam, Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav on Friday demanded suspension of the SEZ Act (2005) and said SEZs should come up in backward regions of the country and not on fertile agriculture land.
"The SEZ scam is the biggest scam of independent India, which involves grabbing of fertile agriculture land of the ’green revolution’ belt, comprising Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh, by corporate land mafia with the help of central and state governments. That is, these SEZs are coming up around Delhi," Yadav told reporters here, a day after the Centre laid new norms to curb SEZ misuse.
"Changing the land use of this belt will end the food security of India and we will be pushed back to the Green Revolution phase of the late 50s and 60s of the last century," the JD(U) chief said, adding that these three states contributed 78% of wheat and 54% of paddy procured last year.
Saying that the SEZ is a burden to the economy, Yadav alleged, “SEZ is purely a real estate scam and nothing to do with export promotion and foreign capital inflow."
Quoting finance ministry estimates that the concessions will cause a revenue loss to the tune of Rs 90,000 crore, he pointed out that the commerce ministry has estimated an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore during the first three years.
He said the JD(U) would launch an agitation against the "anti-farmer and anti-national" SEZ policy. This would include a demonstration before the Parliament House on September 25. Noting that the RBI had on Wednesday directed the commercial banks to treat SEZ developers and units as any other real estate project, Yadav pointed out that the apex bank, in its earlier report, had already stated that SEZ would cause imbalance in the economy.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=141223
"The SEZ scam is the biggest scam of independent India, which involves grabbing of fertile agriculture land of the ’green revolution’ belt, comprising Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh, by corporate land mafia with the help of central and state governments. That is, these SEZs are coming up around Delhi," Yadav told reporters here, a day after the Centre laid new norms to curb SEZ misuse.
"Changing the land use of this belt will end the food security of India and we will be pushed back to the Green Revolution phase of the late 50s and 60s of the last century," the JD(U) chief said, adding that these three states contributed 78% of wheat and 54% of paddy procured last year.
Saying that the SEZ is a burden to the economy, Yadav alleged, “SEZ is purely a real estate scam and nothing to do with export promotion and foreign capital inflow."
Quoting finance ministry estimates that the concessions will cause a revenue loss to the tune of Rs 90,000 crore, he pointed out that the commerce ministry has estimated an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore during the first three years.
He said the JD(U) would launch an agitation against the "anti-farmer and anti-national" SEZ policy. This would include a demonstration before the Parliament House on September 25. Noting that the RBI had on Wednesday directed the commercial banks to treat SEZ developers and units as any other real estate project, Yadav pointed out that the apex bank, in its earlier report, had already stated that SEZ would cause imbalance in the economy.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=141223
posted by Sudarshan Rodriguez at 2:48 AM
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