Medha calls for fight against SEZ policy

Special Correspondent

"The zones will hamper further the interests of the poor"

EMPATHISING WITH PEOPLE: Social activist Medha Patkar listening to
grievances of the people who are likely to be displaced by the Posco
mega steel plant, in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.

BHUBANESWAR: Social activist Medha Patkar on Saturday criticised the
Centre's special economic zone (SEZ) policy and called for a concerted
fight against the pro-corporate and anti-people industrialisation taking
place across the country.

Addressing the inaugural session of a two-day national convention on
`Globalisation and Fast Industrialisation versus Alternative Development
Model' here, Ms. Patkar said the current process of industrialisation
amounted to massacre of a minority by a majority that thrived with the
lathi and bullets.

Maintaining that the SEZs would further hamper the interests of the
poor, Ms. Patkar said that the policy was designed to help corporate
houses become richer at the expense of the poor. She charged that Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Planning
Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia were supporting the
SEZ policy that was aimed at creating `special exploiting zones' by
corporate houses from both India and outside.

The convention will discuss issues of the industrialisation process in
Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and the question of displacement and
a threat to the environment and livelihood in the region.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/15/stories/2006101504190900.htm