Citizens’ Research Collective on SEZ

Soumitra Trivedi, Business Standard

Mumbai/ Ahmedabad June 25, 2007: Gujarat wing of farmers’ body Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), will launch a massive protest against the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy of Gujarat government.

The farmers’ body says that the state government is allowing corporate majors to buy fertile agricultural land which will result in extreme poverty among farmers and reduced crop output from the state.

BKS says that the government has conveniently abolished the earlier rule which allowed only a farmer to buy fertile agriculture land. This rule should be re-imposed in the interest of farmers and the state.

The farmers’ body says that it will go on a massive opposition drive across the state and the drive will begin with mass submission of signed memoranda at the taluk, district and state level to the authorities concerned.

Talking to Business Standard, BKS state head, Prafull Sejaliya, said, “The government is supporting the corporate cause through its SEZ policy allowing them to buy fertile agricultural land for industrial use. In Jamnagar Reliance has bought many fertile farms which should not be allowed as in the longer run this will result in extreme poverty among the farming community as well as a constant decrease in the state’s agricultural output in the coming years.”

“We will launch a strong movement across the state to oppose this stand of the government. If the corporates keep buying agricultural land at this rate one day the state will face a scarcity of land for agricultural purpose. We will soon start organising taluk and district-level meetings on this issue and submit memoranda. If the government does not take any action on our demands then we will intensify the movement,” Sejaliya said.

Talking about their demands Sejaliya said, “We want the government to re-impose the earlier rule which used to allow only farmers to buy agricultural land. They can sell non-agricultural lands to the corporates but not the land which is already being used for farming. The government has conveniently changed this rule to make it easy for corporates to buy such fertile land.”

The issue of opposition to SEZ by farmers may cause a bit of difficulty for the BJP-ruled government at this juncture as the elections are just round the corner, in December.

Moreover, the farming community is already in bad mood after the government drive to impose power cuts in the state.

In a recent statement opposing the power cut, BKS said, “The state government has passed on the burden of power supply shortage of nearly 600 Mw from the western grid onto the farmers. We want the government to give at least eight hours of power every day, if not more, till monsoon sets in all over Gujarat.”

The state government had to restore power to the farmers. However, this has not been enough to satisfy the aggrieved farmers.

The farmers claim that the government is not paying any attention to the more than 200,000 applications for new power connections. The issue of SEZ land clearly indicates at the dissatisfaction of the farming community with the BJP-ruled state government.