SEZ land size to decide rehabilitation
Only multi-product SEZs may have to adhere to the terms of the rehabilitation & resettlement policy.
By Bharti Jain, TNN |
NEW DELHI: The proposed rehabilitation policy may be giving jitters to SEZ promoters but only 30-odd projects, that have got in-principle clearance, will come under its ambit. The national rehabilitation and resettlement policy for families displaced by mega projects, including SEZs, proposes to cover only those projects which exceed 400 acres.
While land acquisition for 237 SEZ projects is complete, leaving them out of the purview of the new resettlement policy, of the 162 SEZ projects that have been given in-principle approval but are yet to acquire land, only 30 are spread over 400 acres. Although the 400-acre threshold is still under consultation among the different ministries ��� some of which want it to be raised rather than cut down ��� the policy may effectively leave out all but 30-odd SEZ proposals currently pending with the government for approval.
In other words, only multi-product SEZs may have to adhere to the terms of the proposed rehabilitation and resettlement policy that includes providing a job and shares or some other benefit to the displaced families. Incidentally, even the 400-acre threshold is facing opposition from key ministries, including the defence, irrigation and transport and highway ministries.
The defence ministry wants the limit to be raised to 1,000 acres while the irrigation and transport ministry has expressed its inability to provide a job to each and every displaced family where large tracts of land are to be acquired. According to commerce ministry sources, of the 30 projects that may be covered by the new policy, 10-12 projects are acquiring land by directly purchasing it from the farmers, leaving no role for the state governments. Reliance is following this route for its upcoming SEZ in Jhajjar, Haryana.
The commerce ministry is not ruling out the possibility of some of the 237 approved SEZs, where land acquisition is complete, opting out. Even the multi-product SEZs, covered by the rehabilitation and resettlement policy, may go in for a rethink after working out additional costs involved in compensating the families displaced by it. According to a commerce ministry projection, about 25% of the pending SEZ applications may leave the race in view of the delays and additional costs.
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This means that the new national rehabilitation and resettlement policy, which will be put up for Cabinet approval soon, may not have a major effect on the existing SEZ proposals. In fact, it may end up pushing up the cost of major government projects, including textile parks, IT parks, irrigation projects, highways and government buildings, as they may now have to bear the additional burden of rehabilitating the families displaced during land acquisition.Download
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