SEZ developers need to win farmers’ trust

MUMBAI: The union commerce ministry on Thursday told the Maharashtra government that no land acquisition for SEZs shall be completed till farmers “willingly withdraw their objections” or “give consent to the compensation package” offered by developers.

The clarification, in response to a query from the Maharashtra government, puts paid to all plans for forcible land acquisition anywhere in the country for any SEZ. Specifically, in Maharashtra, this development puts the brakes on the state government’s plan to commence acquisition of land on Friday in 29 villages of Raigad district for the Mahamumbai SEZ being promoted by Reliance.

The plan was to acquire land under Section 6 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act 1894. Specifically, the clarification from the Centre means that the state can still go ahead with the formalities involved in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, but cannot complete the actual process of transfer to the SEZ developer, without getting the farmers’ consent.

Acquisition under Section 6(1) allows the state government to override objections from holders of the land being acquired. Given that farmer groups had submitted 18,000 objections and threatened to launch a wide-scale agitation against the imposition of Section 6(1) in the district, the state government cannot transfer land to SEZs without violating the Centre’s policy on the subject, reiterated by the Commerce ministry on Thursday.

“Our communiqu# to Maharahtra government is mean to interpret the SEZ policy which has been announced and hence shall be applicable all over India,” a senior commerce ministry official told ET.

The commerce ministry communiqu# to the state government categorically states that no land transfer shall take place unless farmers willingly withdraw their objections to SEZ or give their consent to the compensation package announced by the developers.

Farmers in the state have been accusing the state government of “coercive land acquisition” for private developers. Pune recently witnessed violent farmer protests over electronic giant Videocon’s SEZ.