SEZ stopover: It's Maharashtra next as Medha brews up a stir
By TNN |
Highlights
MUMBAI: After Singur and Nandigram, Maharashtra could well become the epicentre of the anti-SEZ stir. On Thursday, social activist Medha Patkar announced her plan to hold a convention of SEZ-affected farmers from across India at Sewagram Ashram near Wardha in Vidarbha on February 9, 10 and 11.
At the Sewagram Ashram founded by Mahatma Gandhi, a strategy would be chalked out against ���coercive, illegal, and un-institutionalised��� manner in which the SEZ policy was being pushed forward���, Ms Patkar said.
In Delhi, the National Alliance for People���s Movement (NAPM), a platform of several NGOs, would lead a stir against the SEZ Act from March 18. ���It will be an indefinite agitation against SEZs and alienation of farmers from their land, communalism, and privatisation,��� Ms Patkar said.
The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader was critical of the manner in which SEZ proposals were being entertained in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Doubting Gujarat government���s claim that people were already accruing the benefits of Sardar Sarovar dam, Ms Patkar said the corporate sector in Gujarat was the first and only beneficiary so far.
���In the target beneficiary area of the dam in Saurashtra like Jamnagar where the water has reached, thousands of acres of land are being acquired for Mukesh Ambani���s Reliance. In Maharashtra also, the way land is being taken over for Reliance SEZ is highly unfair,��� she alleged.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ms Patkar also questioned the proposed rehabilitation policy as ���people likely to get affected by SEZs did not have valid reasons to believe UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when they spoke of rehabilitation���. ���The only way the policy in its present form can be pushed forward is coercive, un-institutionalised, and illegal. There is no need for the PM to talk of a new rehabilitation plan. The national rehabilitation policy of 2003, though not exactly a model one, has very good intentions. There is no need for a new one if those intentions are followed in the right earnest,��� she said.
Download
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
Download
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
ADVERTISEMENT
