The Hindu

• 'There is scope for misuse of land' 
• KPRS to launch a movement against SEZs
• Like-minded organisations to seek amendment to SEZ Act

Mangalore, Oct 24: General secretary of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS) G.C. Baiya Reddy said on Monday that the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) concept was a conspiracy against the poor.

He told The Hindu here that it was not known how many acres of farmland would be acquired for the proposed 200 SEZs in the country of which 21 would be in the State. Karnataka also followed the national trend of losing 50 per cent of its cultivable land for many reasons - with the main being construction purpose.

Arguments

Mr. Reddy said there were arguments for and against SEZs. There was scope for misuse of land under the SEZ Act by the licence-holder. The land could never be re-claimed by the Government in case of misuse. To insulate the SEZs against the Government intervention, the SEZ Act stated that the licence-holder or promoter could utilise 25 per cent of the land assigned to each SEZ and the rest could be used for any purpose that the investor or the promoter deemed it fit.

Mr. Reddy said the Government had failed to see that SEZ was also a livelihood issue for farmers. "You take away land from a farmer, he becomes not just unemployed but also unemployable." The KPRS would launch a State-wide awareness movement against SEZs. It would join hands with likeminded organisations elsewhere in the country to protest against handing over of cultivable land to SEZs.

He said some organisations in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh were concerned about farmers and the declining food security owing to the loss of cultivable land.

`Alienated'

Though Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath had indicated that cultivable land could not be "alienated" for SEZ purposes, it was still an oral assurance and was not enough for stopping the State governments from giving away cultivable land to SEZs. The like-minded organisations would give a call to amend the SEZ Act, he said.