RIL extends SEZ rehab package to all those hit

MUMBAI: A day after its officials found themselves at the receiving end of farmers’ ire over its SEZ project here, the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group on Wednesday decided to come out with a relief package with retrospective effect to smoothen the ruffled feathers. However, Wednesday’s announcement has offered little cheer to Maha Mumbai SEZ Sangharsh Samiti, a platform of several bodies resisting the Maha Mumbai SEZ. “We continue to oppose the land acquisition,” it said.

The Reliance group’s decision means that the farmers who have sold their land to RIL before the promulgation of the Land Acquisition Act and announcement of the relief package on February 19, would also be offered the revised amount of Rs 10 lakh per acre under paddy and Rs 5 lakh for unproductive land.

In an official statement, MSEZ, the Reliance arm for SEZ, said the rates of Rs 10 lakh for land under paddy and Rs 5 lakh for unproductive land would, henceforth, apply to land bought even prior to the promulgation of the Land Acquisition Act in the project area. “This has been a long-pending demand, and MSEZ feels that it is justified,” the statement read.
The company’s decision comes a day after its officials were roughed up at Pen over the land price by the agitated farmers. The officials who were at Pen to finalise the land deals are believed to have told farmers that the raised amount would be paid only to farmers who signed the deal after February 19. Enraged by this, farmers gheraoed the RIL officials. This seems to have forced the company to make compensation applicable with retrospective effect.

With Wednesday’s decision, the company said “now that the rationalisation has been brought about in the rates of payment, the farmers selling land to the project have come on a par”. Besides the cash compensation, the company has also offered 12.5% of the developed land against the total acquired land.

Many, however, are not willing to buy the company’s line. “The company is not doing any favour by offering 12.5% of the developed land in lieu of the land acquired. This is as per the Maharashtra governments Rehabilitation Act, 1999,” said DK Patil of Sangharsh Samiti. The Act makes it compulsory for developers to return 12.5% of the developed land to farmers to compensate for their land loss, he said.

The company, however, is optimistic about the project’s progress. “The pace of sell of land would pick up hereafter,” read the MSEZ statement, indicating that the pace of land acquisition was below expectations till now. Officially, the company has procured just about 200 acres of land since it announced a package last month as against the required size of 25,000 acres.