Land acquisition main hurdle for SEZ: CM

ECONOMY BUREAU
DATELINE

MUMBAI, APR 3 : Maharashtra chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, asserted
that land acquisition remained as the main hurdle in the establishment
of special economic zones (SEZ) in the state.
He termed the Nandigram incident as 'unfortunate' and said that farmers'
interests were to be protected by offering packages to farmers whose
land was to be acquired.

Deshmukh had already announced that the state government would not
acquire fertile land, but would acquire semi-fertile or arid land for SEZs.

He added that industries, particularly the IT sector, had potential to
solve the problem of unemployment. The state government would play a
role of facilitator. "We want to see the creation of more and more jobs,
so that the problem of unemployment is solved," he said. Hinjewadi in
Pune, which is being developed as a special economic zone by the MIDC,
has become a world class IT centre. Private IT parks are being promoted
in a big way in Maharashtra. The government has approved the setting-up
of 146 IT parks all over the state, Deshmukh said. He added that Nagpur
was being developed as Asia's Frankfurt.

Maharashtra's strength lay in the number of educational institutions, he
added. "The IT industry focuses only on turnover. It should touch the
lives of the people at the grassroot level and be a tool to remove the
curse of poverty," Deshmukh said.

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