Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (NR)

Mangalore, Jan 30: An interactive meet with the media was organized by the Nagarika Seva Trust (NST), Guruvayanakere and the farmers' forum of Karnataka, in association with other farmers' organizations and NGOs, after the massive farmers' rally attended by over 7,000 farmers and the Convention for Rights Assertion at the Urwa market ground here on Tuesday Jan 29.  

Speaking on the occasion Matanhy Saldanha, former Goa MLA in the course of his talks asserted firmly that notified Special Economic Zones (SEZs) can be de-notified under the Special Clauses Act (Section 21).  

He opined that it was not right to assume that notified SEZ's cannot be de-notified or scrapped. Giving an example he pointed out that it was because of the unified struggle by the people that all the 15 proposals of SEZs of Goa were cancelled.  

According to him the "power of people is supreme" and therefore exhorted the people of coastal region of the state to fight against the big industrial proposals such as those of Nagarjuna, Mangalore SEZ and Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR).  

Moreover, he informed media persons here that most people do not know what exactly is a  Special Economic Zone, "it is in fact a country within a country" and no state or central law and no tax will be applicable for SEZs and they will have their own laws. Citizens entering into an SEZ will be arrested by the special cops and punished. And in case a citizen died due to pollution from SEZs, nobody would be there to pay compensation, he warned.  

With regard to a query he clarified that he was not against sustainable industrialization which utilized the skills of local people to generate employment. With regard to how Mangaloreans can oppose SEZs Saldanha said the approach should be different here, depending on whether the place is developed or needs development.  

Prof B M Kumaraswami, state convener of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch informed that a total of 1.5 lac farmers in the country had committed suicide during the period between 1997 and 2005, of which around 20,000 farmers were from the state alone, "Establishment of SEZs will boost the number of farmers' suicides in our nation," he cautioned morbidly. 

Also present on the occasion were litterateur prof Amritha Someshwar, K Somanath Nayak president of NST, Madhukar Amin president of Krishibhoomi Samrakshana Samiti, Sunny D'Souza general secretary of Rajya Raita Sangha - Hasiru Sene and Sripadre a noted environmentalist.