Citizens’ Research Collective on SEZ

Chandigarh, November 21, 2007: Indian National Lok Dal president and former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala said on Wednesday that his party and the farmers would oppose tooth and nail any attempt by the Congress Government in the State to acquire farmers’ agricultural land for handing over to private developers for Special Economic Zones.

In a press release here, Mr. Chautala warned that the Government would be squarely responsible for the consequences of any such action. He reiterated that the policy of SEZs, land acquisition, food security of the country and the well-being of the farmers needed to be viewed collectively.

The Haryana Government, in utter disdain of the State and the farmers’ interest, had pushed a policy that had resulted in the biggest financial scandal of independent India, he alleged.

Mr. Chautala said there was a difference between land being acquired for the State and for private parties. Ignoring this difference, the Congress Government had handed over land acquired for the State-developed SEZ, which has been valued at Rs.1lakh crore in the market, to Reliance Industries in Garhi-Harsaru. He further alleged that the Congress Government had now taken a series of steps to help Reliance realise its dream of having an SEZ of about 25,000 acres.

He said it was not difficult to notice the link between the approval granted by the State to Reliance to develop two SEZs in the State of 12,500 acres each, one each in Gurgaon and Jhajjar.

This approval has to be viewed against the background of the Chief Minister’s announcement only a few days earlier that farmers whose land was acquired for SEZs would be given an additional Rs. 30,000 per acre per year.

“Obviously the Chief Minister had already decided to acquire land for SEZs to be developed by private developers and was offering sops to the farmers,” he charged.

Mr. Chautala asserted that since the land commands much higher price in the open market, the INLD would launch an agitation against such a move unless the private developers buy it at the market rate.

Source: The Hindu