SEZ developers need to win farmers’ trust
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, JUNE 08, 2007 02:37:19 AM]
MUMBAI: The union commerce ministry on Thursday told the Maharashtra
government that no land acquisition for SEZs shall be completed till
farmers "willingly withdraw their objections" or "give consent to the
compensation package" offered by developers.
The clarification, in response to a query from the Maharashtra
government, puts paid to all plans for forcible land acquisition
anywhere in the country for any SEZ. Specifically, in Maharashtra, this
development puts the brakes on the state government's plan to commence
acquisition of land on Friday in 29 villages of Raigad district for the
Mahamumbai SEZ being promoted by Reliance.
The plan was to acquire land under Section 6 (1) of the Land Acquisition
Act 1894. Specifically, the clarification from the Centre means that the
state can still go ahead with the formalities involved in the Land
Acquisition Act, 1894, but cannot complete the actual process of
transfer to the SEZ developer, without getting the farmers' consent.
Acquisition under Section 6(1) allows the state government to override
objections from holders of the land being acquired. Given that farmer
groups had submitted 18,000 objections and threatened to launch a
wide-scale agitation against the imposition of Section 6(1) in the
district, the state government cannot transfer land to SEZs without
violating the Centre's policy on the subject, reiterated by the Commerce
ministry on Thursday.
"Our communiqu# to Maharahtra government is mean to interpret the SEZ
policy which has been announced and hence shall be applicable all over
India," a senior commerce ministry official told ET.
The commerce ministry communiqu# to the state government categorically
states that no land transfer shall take place unless farmers willingly
withdraw their objections to SEZ or give their consent to the
compensation package announced by the developers.
Farmers in the state have been accusing the state government of
"coercive land acquisition" for private developers. Pune recently
witnessed violent farmer protests over electronic giant Videocon's SEZ.
posted by Sudarshan Rodriguez at 6:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home