Mr. Gregory Patrao, one of the victims of SEZ, proclaimed that the government is snatching away the land of the poor and selling it to the industries at higher rates.
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Anti-SEZ groups demand scrapping of the SEZ Act

Anti-SEZ groups demand scrapping of the SEZ Act


Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, May 10: Mr. Gregory Patrao, one of the victims of SEZ, proclaimed that the government is snatching away the land of the poor and selling it to the industries at higher rates. He was addressing a protest meet “Scrap the SEZ Act” organized in front of the DC office on May 10, Monday. He also said that, far from development, SEZ is only an act of hurting the sentiments of poor farmers. 

Speaking about SEZ, Mr. Patrao said that the government of India continues to use force, coercion, and fraudulent means to suppress the people’s protests against forced land acquisition and grabbing of resources for the economic zones. Far from having a dialogue with affected communities, including farmers, the government and the machinery of commerce continues to ignore the recommendations of the previous parliamentary standing committee of June 2007, which openly criticizes SEZ, says that these zones are nothing but real estate scams, and demands for a review in the SEZ policy. 

 

SEZ protest

 

SEZ protest

 

SEZ protest

 

Affected communities as well as national organizations concerned about the SEZ Act and its adverse effects on the Indian polity, society, and economy met last year to conduct an intensive exercise called People’s Audit of SEZs. All the people affected by the SEZ projects and the land acquisition procedures related to SEZ gave their testimonies and depositions before a panel of eminent social scientists, retired bureaucrats, economists, and journalists. 

On Nov 8, 2009, the People’s Audit of Mangalore SEZ at Bajpe exposed the deceptive nature of the promoters of SEZ and the actual impact of SEZ on the people of Mangalore. The People’s Audit of SEZs in different states culminated in a national audit held at New Delhi on April 19 – 20, during which an eminent panel comprising Kuldip Nair, Devaki Jain, Admiral Ramdas, K. B. Saxena, and others head depositions and testimonies of the affected people and environmental and social activists from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Goa. 

The panel recommended the immediate repeal of the SEZ Act and the immediate stopping of all pending applications. The panel also said that all the SEZs so far approved must be reviewed through a participatory public process. If they are allowed to continue, they must be subject to environment, labour, tax, and other laws of the country, transforming them into normal industrial estates and taking back the excess land acquired by them. 

Instead of SEZ, the government must facilitate the security of communities who live off the land and help them enhance agricultural, forestry, fisheries, rural, industrial, and other means of livelihood. Innovative initiatives of decentralized political and economic democracies led by civil society organizations and communities must be supported and encouraged, suggested the panelists in their interim report of April 20, 2010. 

The national campaign against SEZs and corporate land grabbling, in which community-based organizations from all over the country participated, was launched with the purpose of pressurizing the state and central governments to recognize the adverse effects of the SEZ policy and work repeal provisions of the 2005 Act.  

Muneer Katipalla said that snatching fertile land from farmers is an insult to the government, adding that the MSEZ is taking land from the poor in the name of development and is cheating the common people as well as the media. 

Prakash V. N. and Fr. Vinod, the members of Karnataka Karavali Janabivriddhi Vedidke; Joseph D’Cunha; Vani Perodi; Hemalatha Bhat; Vincent; and Fr. Onil were present during the protest meet. 

Later, copies of the SEZ Act were burned.


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