SEZs here to stay, but will be made more humane: PM

Saturday March 24 2007 05:18 IST
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday conceded his
government was „facing certain problems" with its policy on special
economic zones, but said it would make „necessary changes" to fix any
faults. He, however, reiterated that SEZs were here to stay.

„These are decisions which are in many ways irreversible. If there were
gaps in its design or in its implementation we should halt a little
bit," Singh said at the India Today Conclave on Friday.

He said the cost of delay was going to be much less then the cost that
would arise if wrong policies were „bulldozed regardless of human,
social and economic concerns".

„I do believe that we should address these concerns if we want the
policy to succeed in the long run," Singh said, replying to questions
after his speech at the Conclave.

Singh said a „more humane, effective and just" rehabilitation policy was
in the process of being formulated. Pending the „finalisation of such a
scheme, there was some delay in going ahead with the announced policy of
the government on SEZs".

In a bid to address some of the concerns that arose most recently from
Nandigram, the government earlier this week put the onus of
rehabilitating the people displaced by an SEZ on the developer.

The Board of Approvals in the Commerce Ministry -- the nodal agency for
SEZs -- has so far given final approval to 237 such zones and
in-principle nod to another 166. However, approvals have been kept on
hold for the past few months.
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