Angry protestors gherao MSEZ office, demand jobs

Angry protestors gherao MSEZ office, demand jobs

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, January 5: Hundreds of people who lost their lands to Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) during its first phase of land acquisition gheraoed the MSEZ offices in the Mangalore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in Mangalore, demanding that the MSEZ keep its promise of offering a job per household for all the 1200 families who were removed from their properties 5 years back.

 

 

 

 

A number of police teams and an armed vehicle rushed to the spot to maintain law and order as the angry protestors, most of them young people, shouted slogans against MRPL and MSEZ. The protestors threatened that they will intensify their protests and will force the shutting down of MRPL and MSEZ and block the highway if their demands were not met in 2 days.

A group of 50 protestors entered the building and spoke to SEZ Chief Executive A. G. Pai for nearly 2 hours regarding his promise of giving people high-salary jobs if they give up their land for MRPL. The officer was unable to speak for nearly half an hour. The enraged protestors repeated their questions in a number of languages such as English, Tamil, and Hindi in order to evoke responses from him. Unwilling to return without a satisfactory answer, they stood around the officer demanding satisfactory answers. Ravi N. Shetty, who was promised a job in return for his land, told the officer that the protestors will not move from the place unless jobs were provided for the young people immediately. They also demanded immediate return of their land if satisfactory jobs were not provided for the youth.

 

 

After a long silence, Pai telephoned a higher authority and said that the managing director of MSEZ said that he would visit the MSEZ refugees on Jan 7. Finally Samyukta Hitarakshana Samithi President Bhoja Shetty, who had led the protest, said that the protest will be intensified if the MSEZ authorities fail to keep their promises.

Mr. Shetty told media persons that the MSEZ had failed to keep its promise of providing jobs. He said that MSEZ had acquired 1,200 acres and evacuated over 1,200 families during the first phase of its land acquisition. The families had sent their children to KPT to get the required training, believing that the MSEZ would provide jobs, but MSEZ now says that only 125 people can be recruited for the field work under the contract without the company directly recruiting any of them. He said that the displaced families are demanding direct appointment by OMPL or ONGC, as promised earlier.

Mr. Pai informed the media that the MSEZ is aware that it has not kept its promise of giving jobs to all families, adding that many of them have been trained and that a written test has been arranged for them so that those who pass the test will receive jobs soon. He also said that those who had given up their land for MRPL have already found jobs.