Singur pullout may impact land acquisition process for SEZs

NEW DELHI: In the wake of Tata���s pullout from Singur in West Bengal and the referendum on Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Raigad district in Maharashtra, questions are being raised whether the issue of land acquisition for several such projects elsewhere in the country could open new controversies.

This is despite the fact that Ratan Tata as also the Left Front government in West Bengal has blamed Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for the pullout of Nano project and Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh ruling out any such referendums for other projects in future.

AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh feels that conflicts over issues relating to land could crop up if there were not appropriate changes in the archaic land acquisition act.

The issue of changes in the land acquisition act has been pending with the parliamentary standing committee headed by senior BJP leader Kalyan Singh for the past two years, he said.

���We request the committee to complete its report as early as possible,��� he said.