SEZ security check may take only a month

NEW DELHI: There���s some good news on the SEZ front. The ministry of home affairs (MHA), which is often blamed for inordinate delay in providing security clearance, has expressed its willingness to limit the processing time for SEZ proposals to a month.

Security clearances are mandatory for SEZs coming up in locationally- and sectorally-sensitive areas. The MHA is firm that the processing time for applications for security green light cannot be less than a month as ���this is the minimum time required by the intelligence agencies to check the antecedents of the SEZ developers��� and their implications on national security.

Only after getting the security agencies reports that ���we can take a view on whether or not to give the go-ahead to the proposal. A month is a reasonable time for the entire drill,��� said a senior MHA official.

The MHA, however, has refused to tone down its stance that SEZs coming under the purview of the term ���locationally and sectorally sensitive��� must have mandatory security clearance from the home ministry.

Only last year, the government had discussed the implications of FDI on national security and the need to regulate foreign investment coming in from ���sensitive��� countries like Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and the UAE, or headed for ���strategic��� sectors like telecom, IT, shipping, aviation, petroleum and energy or ports.

Also, the need for the security clearance for foreign investors who want to locate their operations in sensitive regions like J&K, the North-East and Left wing extremism-hit states, besides border and coastal areas, was stressed by the security establishment.

The same criteria are to be followed in the case of SEZ proposals, too. Though the government is not too keen to make the restrictions on FDI ���country-specific���, it���s clear about routing all proposals posing locational and sectoral threats through the MHA.

At the same time, the MHA is amenable to suggestions for cutting down delays in processing SEZ applications for the security nod.