I don't know whether the papers carried the report but Outlook magazine has a story on the referendum carried out on the Reliance SEZ in Raighad district of Maharashtra. In the referendum, the first of its kind on an SEZ, the proposal to create a 10,000 hectare SEZ covering 25 villages was apparently voted against by 80-85% of the people who cast votes.
Interesting, since the impression I had got earlier from newspaper reports was that Reliance had made a very attractive offer (Rs 10 lac per ha) and that villages were dying to part with their land. Most of the villages are not willing to provide even conditional consent under which Reliance would pay Rs 1 crore per ha, provide a 12.5% share of the developed land to affected farmers and take the land on a 99 year lease.
Outlook says the vote is not binding on the Maharashtra government. Why not a similar vote in Singur- at least that will tell us where the affected parties stand.
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2 comments:
Sir, the fundamental flaw in SEZ land acquisition derives from the fertility of land. If SEZ is set up in areas with fertile agricultural land, we will continue to see this problem.
However, if non-arable wasteland area is use for SEZs, the extent of protest would be less.
-Shalender Singh Birla
Sir, i believe now govt should restrain itself from giving the permission for SEZ...although cost of this can be higher in terms of development but people's wish should be respected...what is your opinion?
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