Land issues and farmer’s unrests canceling SEZ
By Dr Sanjay Chaturvedi
Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan scrapped the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Pune just before the assembly elections. The main reason behind it was that farmers were opposing to the SEZ. The SEZ was to be developed by Videocon Group in association with Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC). On August 25, 2009 Chavan said that the title to the land, identified for acquisition, would be returned to farmers.
The move was to please the farmers who were angry with the Congress-NCP government for taking away their land to develop industries. Farmers of four villages in Pune district voted the NCP Member of Parliament, Vilas Lande, from their constituency (Shirur) in the Parliamentary elections earlier this year. Videocon have been given an alternative land in Saswad Taluka in Pune district.
The state government had proposed Videocon SEZ in early 2007 on 1821 hectares in villages Wagholi, Kesnand, Bakori and Lonikhan. Farmers opposed the SEZ from the outset. They agitated at the collector’s office and attacked employees of Videocon. The protest forced the government to stay the proposed SEZ in November 2007.
Over 200 SEZs have been proposed in the state of which 44 are in Pune district. The cancellation of Wagholi SEZ had set in motion demands to scrap SEZs in other areas too. Farmers of 45 villages in Raigad have demanded scrapping of the Reliance SEZ in their area. Only Rs 13 lakhs was offered for an acre of land by Reliance whereas the going rate was a hundred times more, sources said.
MIHAN SEZ in Nagpur has also seen social unrest while the Government of Maharashtra tried to save skins by offering developed land that is 12.5 per cent of the land acquired. It also offered them cash compensation and TDR can be sold without stamp duty.
The government amended the Project Affected Persons Rehabilitation Act, 1999, through an ordinance to make cash compensation and TDR possible. There is a sense of victory among families affected by the MIHAN SEZ which was earlier known as the Nagpur Cargo Hub. The families are unhappy though; the government order does not provide land within the SEZ. The affected families have declared that they will settle for nothing less than 12.5 per cent developed land within the SEZ and will not vacate their villages till this demand is granted by the government.
Like Videocon, Reliance and MIHAN, private SEZ declared by state government elsewhere in the country, has land issues killing the concept of SEZs. This or hidden agendas of SEZs to grab prime land for residential purposes or for real estate development is known to farmers and they want their shares in the development.
