Government urged to reconsider SEZ proposal

Special Correspondent

There will be opposition if tax sops are extended to SEZs: CPI

Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

EXCHANGING IDEAS: Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S. Ramadoss, CPI(M)
Central Committee member T.K. Rengarajan, People's Union for Civil
Liberties president V. Suresh, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu N. Ram, and
TNCC president M. Krishnasswamy, at a seminar on special economic zones
in Chennai on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: The State Government should pay greater attention to revive
"sick" small scale and other industrial units, including those in
industrial complexes established by the State Industries Promotion
Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT), than form special economic zones
(SEZs), S. Ramadoss, founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi, said here on
Wednesday.

Addressing a seminar organised by the party's green wing, Pasumai
Thayagam, on the creation of SEZs, Mr. Ramadoss cited the example of the
SIPCOT complex in Hosur, where many units remained closed. People in
Krishnagiri district (under which the Hosur complex falls) moved to
Bangalore and other towns in Karnataka to sustain themselves. He
recalled that several concessions were once offered to units in
industrial complexes.

However, Mr. Ramadoss clarified that neither he nor his party was
against employment generation.

Referring to the State Government's scheme of extending the unemployment
allowance, Dr. Ramadoss said: "Doles can be given for a year or two. But
what should be done is that jobs should necessarily be given to all
those who are unemployed."

He regretted that the erstwhile North Arcot and Chengalpattu districts,
once known as major centres of rice production, had now become
"real-estate districts."

D. Pandian, State secretary of the Communist Party of India, debunked
the idea of SEZs. The objectives behind the Land Acquisition Act were
not fulfilled when land was acquired for the proposed SEZs. There would
be opposition to the establishment of SEZs if they were exempted from
tax laws, he warned.

As done in China, trade unions should be allowed to function in SEZs and
50 per cent of profit should be used for domestic investment, he suggested.

Justice for cultivators

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu , called upon the Central
Government to be transparent and forthcoming in responding to concerns
and questions raised about the SEZs. He exhorted "every political party
and all thinking people" to ponder whether the scheme of SEZs was worth
the cost and whether it was worth what was being promised. He urged the
Government to answer the issue of justice to cultivators, agricultural
labourers, peasants, industrial workers and the jobless.

T.K. Rengarajan, Member of the Central Committee of the CPI (Marxist),
explained safeguards being followed by the CPI (M)-led Government in
West Bengal in implementing the SEZ concept. Only backward regions of
West Bengal had been chosen to establish the SEZs.

Farmers' interests

M. Krishnasswamy, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president, said his
party would always safeguard the interests of farmers.

Expressing concern over the low nutrition levels in the State, V.
Suresh, president of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (Tamil Nadu
and Pondicherry), said the cropping pattern had changed in the last
decade with cereal production going down by 50 per cent.

M. Ramadass, MP from Pondicherry, wanted the Central Government to
clarify whether the proposed law on reservation in the private sector
would be applicable to SEZs as well.

G.K. Mani, PMK president, and Sowmya Anbumani, president of Pasumai
Thayagam, also spoke.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/26/stories/2006102604500600.htm