Chikmagalur, November 25, 2007: Save Western Ghats District Organising secretary Gajendra Gorasukudige opined here on Friday that if the Special Economic Zones were not restructured to suit the native conditions, it would turn out another neo-colonial strangle hold.
Delivering a special talk on SEZ at a function organised by Rotary Cofffeeland, he felt that even though SEZs main objective was to develop industries in a specific zone on par with global competitive standards with all infrastructural facilities minus tax, it was not free from some bottle necks as it might entail eviction of farmers by the land mafia and complete control of the private agencies.
In the wake of strengthening the export sector for economic revival in India, the SEZ Act was introduced in 2005.
By 2010 there is every likelihood of 500 new SEZs entering India. Seven SEZs are already in existence in the country on experimental basis. Surat, Indore, Chennai and Visakhapatnam are some of them. Rs 9,000 crore investment has yielded only Rs 6.5 crore income, he said.
He sought to know why these special economic zones instead of being concentrated in Bombay, Delhi, Gujarat etc should not be started in backward regions like North East India, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and equality was not maintained.
He expressed the apprehension that the capitalists might join hands with industrial tycoons and the conversion of farmland into industrial area would render farmers impoverished besides forcing the country to face food problem.
He said it was a good sign that the farmers around Nagapura had formed groups to develop 2,435 acres of agricultural land as farm-based industrial zone. Rotary Coffeeland president Ujwal D Padubidri presided over the function.
Source: NewIndPress.com
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