SEZ concept a conspiracy against poor: KPRS leader

Special Correspondent

`There is scope for misuse of land'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KPRS to launch a movement against SEZs
Like-minded organisations to seek amendment to SEZ Act
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MANGALORE: General secretary of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha
(KPRS) G.C. Baiya Reddy said on Monday that the Special Economic Zone
(SEZ) concept was a conspiracy against the poor.

He told The Hindu here that it was not known how many acres of farmland
would be acquired for the proposed 200 SEZs in the country of which 21
would be in the State. Karnataka also followed the national trend of
losing 50 per cent of its cultivable land for many reasons - with the
main being construction purpose.

Arguments

Mr. Reddy said there were arguments for and against SEZs. There was
scope for misuse of land under the SEZ Act by the licence-holder. The
land could never be re-claimed by the Government in case of misuse. To
insulate the SEZs against the Government intervention, the SEZ Act
stated that the licence-holder or promoter could utilise 25 per cent of
the land assigned to each SEZ and the rest could be used for any purpose
that the investor or the promoter deemed it fit.

Mr. Reddy said the Government had failed to see that SEZ was also a
livelihood issue for farmers. "You take away land from a farmer, he
becomes not just unemployed but also unemployable." The KPRS would
launch a State-wide awareness movement against SEZs. It would join hands
with likeminded organisations elsewhere in the country to protest
against handing over of cultivable land to SEZs.

He said some organisations in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh were
concerned about farmers and the declining food security owing to the
loss of cultivable land.

`Alienated'

Though Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath had indicated that cultivable
land could not be "alienated" for SEZ purposes, it was still an oral
assurance and was not enough for stopping the State governments from
giving away cultivable land to SEZs. The like-minded organisations would
give a call to amend the SEZ Act, he said.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/24/stories/2006102415830300.htm