CPI for amendments in SEZ policy

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2006 10:10:26 PM]

KOLKATA: Taking a cue from the CPIM, the CPI on Tuesday asked the Centre
to amend its Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy.

The CPIM all-India leadership has recently asked the Centre to amend the
SEZ policy by deleting some clauses that allegedly hurt the interest of
farmers and affect the country’s food security. Now it’s the CPI’s turn
to do as much.

“The Union government will suffer a staggering financial losses of Rs
1.75 lakh crore by offering benefits to industrialists who will be
involved in rolling out SEZs pan-India,” CPI central council member and
state party secretary Manju Kumar Majumder said on Tuesday.

Mr Majumder said the Centre had proposed to set up 300 SEZs in the
country and the Board of Approval (BoA) had already cleared 67 such SEZs
in various states.

“Several state governments will have to acquire about 1.34 lakh hectares
of land for construction of SEZs. We have no idea how much of the 1.34
lakh hectares is farmland or multi-crop land,” the CPI leader asserted.

“The Union government is trying to deprive farmers in the name of
setting up SEZs. The SEZ policy was meant to please industrialists at
the cost of the farmers interest. We believe the SEZ policy, if
implemented in its present form, will undermine the food security of our
country,” Mr Majumder said.

It is in this backdrop that CPI was urging the Centre to amend the SEZ
policy to secure the interests of farmers and maintain the country’s
food security. The CPI has also opposed the Centre’s decision to offer
tax incentives to industrialists involved in SEZ rollouts.

Asked whether his party would oppose the setting up of the eight SEZs in
West Bengal, Mr Majumder said: “We have no idea how many SEZs will come
up in this state. Neither the Left Front government nor the Centre has
told our our party about SEZs in West Bengal.”

Mr Majumdar said his party would decide on West Bengal SEZs once it had
specific information from the state government. Interestingly, Mr
Majumder’s CPI colleague and West Bengal minister for water resources
development, Nandagopal Bhattacharjee had told ET on Monday that the
party would not oppose the setting up of SEZs in West Bengal as they
believed the state government would not betray the farmers.

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