Global warming, Mother India and Indian Peasants

Global warming, Mother India and Indian Peasants

Indian Holocaust My father`s life and Time - Ninty Five

Palash Biswas



It is the toughest challange for ruling Left in West Bengal as the Jamat Ulama-i-Hind plans to hold protests against the acquisition of farm land for industries and has decided to hold a march at Singur on February 7.Muslims vote en masse for the left and the twenty eight percent Muslim population alaways has ensured the sustenance of the Left in power.Without doing anything as a government the Left rules Bengal for three decades and it is previleged enough to feed its election machinery for scientific rigging. Anti fascisism and anti imperialism cries were always meant to keep the Muslim Vote Bank intact. I have been writing all these days that Caste Hindu Left faces a rare puzzle in Nandigram and now the puzzle is escalated. Hindu- muslim united peasants movement is not only going to change the scenerio in bengal it is a red alert for the ruling classes all over the subcontinent.The administration has already warned of firm action against any possibility of violence.After Singur and Nandigram, farmers in West Midnapore’s Kharagpur have launched an agitation against the proposed land acquisition for a payloader plant of Tata group company Telcon.
About 1,280 acres are scheduled to be acquired for the project.Yesterday, about 200 farmers from four mouzas — Ghaylageria, Chakganesh, Baradiha and Jafala — marched to additional district magistrate (general) Smaraki Mahapatra and submitted letters of objection to her. In their letters, the farmers gave details of their landholdings and informed the ADM that they would not give up their land for any industrial project.

The most unnoticed fact is that the Globalisation has endangered the very sustenance of Man and nature. Global warming is "very likely" caused by human activities and has become a runaway train that cannot be stopped, say agencies quoting a United Nations panel report.This will cause billions of dollars of damage to coastal areas, crucial ecosystems and the agricultural sector worldwide, the report warns. The warming of Earth and increases in sea level "would continue for centuries ... even if greenhouse gas concentrations were to be stabilized," says a 20-page summary of the report, which was leaked to the media nearly a day before its official release slated for Friday morning in Paris. The summary of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report also says the "best estimate" from scientists is that temperatures will rise between 3.2 to 7.8 degrees by 2100, while sea levels could rise by 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century. If the Greenland ice sheet and an ice shelf identified as Larsen B in western Antarctica continues to melt at current rates, this could go up by another 5 to eight inches.

The phrase "very likely" indicates a 90% certainty, said the Los Angeles Times, noting that the last IPCC report, issued five years ago, had said it was "likely" that human activity was at fault, indicating a certainty of 66 per cent. .

In Mother India , we have seen, Birju screams in rage, reluctant to let go of the bronze and copper vessels, holding on to his favourite plate. Singur and Nandigram and all theproposed SEZ areas countrywide explains how mother India suffers. Radha tells him he must concede or else his father, brothers and grandmother will starve. The boy weeps, ‘Would you starve too, mother?’ and relents. Radha’s love for her eldest son is deep and constant; but her relationship with Birju is special and particularly highlighted in the film. Not only is Radha partial to Birju, Mehboob was as well – as is clear from the amount of narrative and visual attention Birju receives. Sajid, a son of poor, estranged parents from a Bombay slum, was found for this role. His father signed the contract on his behalf (since Sajid was a minor) for 750 rupees. Sajid as Birju proved very popular with audiences and critics; and he captured Mehboob’s heart. So taken up was the director by the little boy’s acting ability and street-smart ways that he and Sardar Akhtar practically adopted him.

Now all the birjus have decided for resistance and this resistance is quite different. No radha seems to be in a mood to gun down her rebel sons. nandigram and singur have done the magic.

Birju as an active narrative agent is first seen sitting on a heap of grains, supervising payments being made to farmhands, acting the grown-up. Lala wants the employers’ grain-share to be taken out of Shyamu’s quarter and not initially from the total yield. ‘Have you worked on the plough that you want the grain?’ asks Birju, echoing sentiments that one deserves only what one has toiled for. Birju’s resentment of Lala is deep – atavistic even. The strength of his feelings wins audiences over to him. Similarly, they would be quick to locate the villain of the piece in the person of the usurer, whose oppression is both part of collective memory and contemporary experience. A pre-colonial, pre-capitalist practice, extant even during the British rule, Lala’s form of usury was very much a reality for Indian farmers even at the time of the film.

Now the villagers are not so illiterate that they won`t understand the scripts. Manusmriti is challanged to overthrow the the Brahiminical rule in the entire cow belt. No relgion has come to rescue the Ruling classes despite the destruction of Babri Masjid.
Now it seem s well to be the turn of the Caste Hindu Marxists to be overthrown from power.

Radha takes Birju to the village school (which Ramu already attends) and pleads with the master, ‘Please teach him arithmetic so he understands Sukhi-lala’s accounts.’ The teacher replies, ‘Even the British government is unable to do so!’ Literacy is an important but subtle theme in the film; but, in this introductory sequence, it is associated with corporal punishment. Birju will not meekly submit to the master’s favourite form of punishment and hits him with his catapult. The image of Birju bound to a post – his grandmother has punished him for that misdeed – is a familiar one from mythology. According to legends, the boy Krishna was punished for stealing his parents’ butter and cream and breaking village women’s water pots. Secretly approving and amused, Radha unties her son and feeds him. Her sense of duty is eclipsed by her love; but the grounds have been prepared for the final dramatic moment, when the call of duty will override everything else.

Land aquisition campaign is quite indiscriminate and it has nothing to do with the life and death, the livelihood , the indigineous agro based production system.

Radha wants to cultivate some fallow land the family owns. The moneylender can have no claim to its produce, she thinks. As they try and clear the area of rocks and boulders, one of the two oxen dies. Lala comes home to take away the other: this will pay off some of their debts, he says. Shyamu, enraged, goes for his throat, but lets go at the insistence of his mother and wife. The seed of rebellion against traditional usury is there in Radha’s husband, but will ripen later, in the person of her son, Birju. Radha opens her dowry box and suggests another ox be bought in exchange for her remaining ornaments.

The story of Shyamu is repeatd daily in India. Only in the eastern districts of Maharashtra no less than sixty two farmers committed suicide in last January. The toll goes one. The cpim politbureau is not going to consider it. The famines of Bengal are being invoked thus. and see waht happens to be the story of Shyamu in Mother India.Shyamu thus fails to remove an obstacle and eradicate a menace, Sukhi-lala. While clearing the barren land, Shyamu tries to uproot a big boulder, by tying it with a rope – Radha and the ox pull from the other end. Shyamu urges, ‘sabbas Radha, keep it up.’ But the boulder rolls back, trapping his two arms – they have to be amputated. If we see this film as Radha’s story, then it is her misfortune her husband can no longer work on the land. Radha is the central figure of the narrative: the narration is initiated by her recollection and memory. But the film until now has not created any clear viewpoint: both husband and wife have been equally important. If we refrain from privileging the woman character just yet, we appreciate that the film’s first major disaster falls on Shyamu.

Many scientists had argued during the editing process of this report that it 'should say it is a "virtually certain" that human activities are causing global warming. That would indicate a 99% certainty,' the Los Angeles Times report said.

'But the change was strongly resisted by China, among other nations, because of its reliance on fossil fuels to help build its economy.'

While the 2002 report said it did not have enough evidence to connect global warming with the rise in powerful storms, this report said it is "more likely than not" that the strong hurricanes and cyclones observed since 1970 have been produced by global warming.

The 'obvious solution' would be to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, by reducing the use of fossil fuels in automobiles, factories and power plants, said the Times.

Tata Steel gets nod for Rs 6000 cr Iran plant

Tata Motors has begun construction work on a new assembly plant factory which it plans to employ 10,000 people producing the ‘1-lakh car’ (100,000 rupees, or £1,150). Subsidiary assembly units are planned for other areas of India.Nearly 1,000 acres of farmland in West Bengal have been fenced off, just outside the capital Kolkata, with the West Bengal state government saying 95% of the 14,000 farmers affected have accepted its compensation package.

In a busy week for the Tata group, Tata Steel announced on Wednesday that it had agreed its planned acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch Corus Group for $12.2 billion, and in India, Tata AutoComp Systems and fellow Indian firm Sasken Communication Technologies entered a joint venture partnership to form TACO Sasken Automotive Electronics, which will design, develop and market automotive electronics products for the global market, addressing both OEMs and aftermarket. Initially the JV will focus on telematics, infotainment and occupant convenience.

Prohibitory orders might be reimposed in Singur to avert fresh trouble near the fenced area where Tata Motors' small car project will come up, West Bengal Home Secretary P R Roy said today.

"We won't tolerate anybody creating lawlessness and, if necessary, prohibitory orders may be reimposed," Roy told reporters in reference to the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind's call for a march to Singur on February seven and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's visit to the area three days later.

Prohibitory orders banning the assembly of five or more people were lifted recently at Singur following an improvement in the situation.

Apparently fearing trouble in the wake of Jamat leader Siddiqulla Chaudhury's call for a march to Singur to stall the take-over of farm land for the Tata Motors' project, the State Government has made elaborate security arrangements in Singur, officials said.

The villagers have set up a krishi jomi raksha (save farmland) committee to oppose the land acquisition. “During the next few days we expect about 1,250 farmers to submit letters of objection in two phases,” said Panchanan Pradhan, district secretary of the committee in Kharagpur.

However, district magistrate B.P. Barat said: “This is not the procedure to register objections. First, we will serve notices to the landowners. Farmers can then lodge their objection. The objections submitted yesterday are politically motivated.”

The four mouzas, dominated by the CPM, have mostly single-crop and two-crop land with paddy being the main crop.

The CPM in Kharagpur said party leaders are trying to convince villagers about the benefits of a big unit like Telcon. “Many of them fail to understand that the proposed industry will change the area’s economy for the better. We are speaking to them,” said Mihir Pahari, secretary of Kharagpur rural zonal committee.

The Jamat, which has been active in Nandigram to oppose the setting up of a SEZ there, is trying to develop the campaign against land acquisition in a systematic manner, its general secretary Mohammad Siddqullah Chowdhury said on Friday."Now we are active in Nandigram and we will soon enter Singur," he told PTI, referring to the Jamat's planned march to Singur, where work on the Tata Motors' small car plant is in full swing.

The proposed march by Jamat activists to Singur will be followed by a similar march by the Trinamool Congress on February 10. This has prompted officials to step up security in Singur and adjoining areas.

Referring to offers from the government for talks with the Jamat, Chowdhury said there was hardly any chance of having discussions with the state government if it went ahead with its plans to acquire homestead land, mosques and temples.He said the Jamat has been active in Nandigram for the past three months, campaigning against land acquisition and carrying out a survey on how many farmers would like their plots to be acquired.
Meanwhile in Cooch Behar, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said,` The West Bengal government will not deviate from its stand on industrialisation as witnessed at Singur, where construction work is on at the Tata Motors' small car project, to better the economic condition of the state.’
"We will not surrender to stupidity," he said without mentioning the opposition put up by either Trinamool Congress or the Save Farmland Committee led by it.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who had sat on a 25-day indefinite fast against the small car project in December, has threatened to re-launch agitation if the Tatas did not make up its mind to restore plots 'forcibly' acquired at Singur to their owners by February 8. Failing which she would personally lead a 'March to Singur' on February 10.


Bhattacharjee said it is not possible to live forever by agriculture only. "West Bengal has secured the first position in the country in the production of paddy, vegetable and fish but industrialisation is necessary for all out development of the state." "The educated youths of today are not interested any more in agriculture and we want to set up industrial units and open up business opportunities for them. It is not possible to arrange new jobs from cultivation only and so we will have to establish new units though the opposition parties are creating problems,"he said at a rally organised by Brahmaputra Jalapath Dabi Samity (BJDS) at Jorai More of Baxirhat in West Bengal's northern district of Cooch Behar.


Singur, the site of the Tata Motors’ small-car project, will take centrestage once again in mid-February when Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as well as Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee are scheduled to address public gatherings there, within a few days of each other. While Mamata will hold a protest meeting on February 10 against farmland acquisition for the project, the Chief Minister will be there on February 15 to show that locals support the project.

Trinamool Congress leaders are not sure if the government will allow their leader to go to the site since prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC are in force in and around the area. Mamata has asked her lieutenants to make arrangements for the rally.



Senior party leaders said that they were planning to organise a human chain around the Tata Motors site. Firebrand leaders like Madan Mitra, Subrata Bakshi, Arup Biswas, Jatu Lahiri and Jyotipriyo Mullick have been given the job of mobilising people from Howrah, Hooghly, Kolkata and North 24-Parganas.

Mamata has not been able to go near Singur since September 25 last year, when she had tried to disrupt the payment process at the Singur Block Development Office for farmers who had sold their land to the government. The police had picked her up and sent her back to Kolkata late at night.

Since then, Mamata has been prevented twice from entering Singur block. Following this, she went on her 25-day hunger strike. This time, she has told her party leaders that if the government renews Section 144, she would break the law. “I do not fear the CM’s red eyes,” Mamata said today, reacting to the Chief Minister’s statement on her agitation programme.

The government apprehends violence on the day of Mamata’s agitation programme. “The government will consider the fresh imposition of Section 144 if necessary,” said Nirupam Sen, the commerce and industries minister. Official sources said the government has asked the district administration to review the law and order situation.

On Tuesday, the Chief Minister, reacting to Mamata’s ultimatum on Monday that she would renew her agitation if the land was not returned, had said there was no question of going back.

Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee, who is also leader of the Opposition, said today: “The statement of the Chief Minister expressed a dictator’s voice. This voice is not conducive for development and industrialisation.”

Now farmers protest Reliance SEZ
Jhajjar (Haryana), Feb 2 (IANS) In the wake of upsurges in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal, more and more farmers are coming out to protest land acquisition for industrial projects. The latest flashpoint is Jhajjar, where India's private sector behemoth Reliance Industries is setting up the most ambitious Special Economic Zone (SEZ). While the Reliance plan to invest Rs.300 billion ($6.80 billion) to set up the SEZ on about 25,000 acres of land between Gurgaon and Jhajjar, 65 km from the national capital, had left the business world impressed, farmers and villagers here are not amused.They question the Haryana government's right to decide about their lives and livelihoods without even informing them.'We had no idea about this project as everything that came to us was written in English. We were just asked to sign on the papers,' said Pandit Netanand, head of the Jhajjar village council.

'I want to know why the state government is working hand in glove with Reliance. We will fight, we will lay down our lives, but not give our land on their terms and conditions,' Netanand told IANS.

Angry farmers of Jhajjar marched down Thursday to the deputy commissioner's office to submit a memorandum detailing their demands. The farmers have said in the memorandum that they are not in favour of transferring the ownership of the land to Reliance and would prefer to give land only on lease.They have also demanded reservation of 25 percent of jobs in the proposed SEZ to the residents of this village as a legally binding requirement.
Moreover, they want to choose the land for the project in such a manner that the village population is not displaced.The farmers want to negotiate directly with the firm the compensation for the families that stand to lose their farmlands as well as the terms and conditions of the lease.

A copy of the memorandum signed by around 3,000 farmers will also be sent to the president, the finance ministry, the commerce and industry ministry, United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Though Jhajjar deputy commissioner Suprabha Dahiya refused to comment on the issue, she said: 'This is the first time I have received any petition from the farmers. We are only executing bodies and we don't have much role to play in this. I will forward the memorandum to the concerned authority.'
Mundra SEZ of Gujarat now has sea and air connectivity

2007-02-01 19:28:12


Gujarat Global News Network, Ahmedabad

With the commissioning of Mundra aerodrome, the Mundra Special Economic Zone has become the first SEZ in the country to have both seaport and airport. The aerodrome is self contained and has state of art facilities for navigation, fire control, ambulance etceteras. The airport has 1900 meters long airstrip and can handle executive jets with ease.

With commissioning of this airport the traveling time to Mundra has come down by three hours as one is not required to travel by road from either Bhuj or Kandla which are located at a distance of nearly 60 kilometers from the SEZ.


Sustained economic growth in the last 15 years is now beginning to create several layers of customer segments. While a lot has been written about the growth of the middle class, not enough has been analysed and discussed about the emergence of a new "very affluent" class.Perhaps we are still shy of celebrating the creation of wealth and publicly acknowledging and applauding the large (and growing) number of the new rich. My company Technopak made its maiden attempt in 2006 to estimate the numbers of these new super-rich households (defined as households with an annual income of Rs 40 lakh or more).

At the end of 2007, the number of such households will be about 1.8 million and the number of consumers in such households will exceed 6 million. The chief earners in such household are 35 years old or more, and almost one-third of them have both men and women with strong professional qualifications. About 70% of such households are engaged in businesses, while as many as 20% now comprise professional executives.

Most of the remaining 10% are self-employed professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and entertainers. Conspicuous by a near absence (less than 1%) from this group of the very rich are the erstwhile royalty, models, and most of the other usual page-3 suspects that typically include wannabe designers, so-called socialites, loud-mouthed admen, peddlers of imported wine and tobacco, and faded or fading film stars.

These rich households are now splurging on a very wide range of goods and services that include entertainment electronics, clothes and accessories, jewellery, watches and pens, automobiles, housing, furniture and furnishings, and gourmet food and wine--just to mention a few prominent product categories. It is therefore no surprise that marketers of such premium and luxury products are making a beeline to India from different parts of the world.

Unfortunately, the purveyors of premium and luxury goods have many challenges in India. The most critical of these is a near absence of quality retail space suitable to house such brands. A related challenge is the virtual absence of premium department stores like Selfridges or Saks Fifth Avenue, which forces most would-be entrants to seek their own retail outlets or, at best, bid for the already exorbitant and very scarce space at a few five-star hotels in select metros.

Marketers of wine, other types of alcohol and food have an even tougher time with severe restrictions on what, when and where they can vend. Faced with these obstacles, one of the most frequently used brand awareness creation and brand-building techniques is to host events that usually include fashion shows, sponsored live entertainment shows including drama and musical events, cocktail/wine receptions, and, more recently, affiliating with select "sports" such as polo.

While the rationale and the potential benefit from such an exercise are not questionable (by and large), the actual impact either in creating the desired appreciation and aspiration for these brands or in translating such aspiration into actual sales is minimal. Actual figures are hard to come by, but few major luxury brands in India barring Luis Vuitton (and maybe one or two others) have hit even the double-digit crore (Rs billion) revenue mark. Most brands (or rather, their starry-eyed Indian franchisees) continue to bleed money with no end in sight in near future.

Rajat Roy Kolkata wrietes correctly in his article `Left is not right’

`Singur, with thickly populated, mostly farming communities, is about 40 km from Kolkata, the capital of the Left Front ruled-state, West Bengal. The habitat offers a diversity of occupations pursued by generations of locals — agriculturalists (landholding farmers and farm labourers), artisans, small traders and self-employed people like sharecroppers, landless migrants and resident labourers. This Singur became the centre of a new political debate once the state government started acquiring 998 acres of agricultural land to set up an automobile factory by Tata Motors. Already much blood has flowed, first in Singur and later in Nandigram. The resistance of the peasantry coupled with Mamata Banerjee's fast and protests of Medha Patkar and other activists have forced the political class, including the prime minister, to turn their attention to the issue.

For the first time in the 30 years of Left Front rule, the CPM is facing a real political challenge. The challenge, the CPM is facing now, is serious and it is coming from an expanding coalition of radical forces outside, and dissenters within. The CPM is facing a serious challenge from the same peasantry whose interest they have been championing for the last few decades.

During the first Left Front regime (1977-1982), and also as a fall-out of the Naxalbari uprising, the CPM intensified the land reform programme by distributing surplus land taken from the rich landlords to the landless peasants. With the ‘Operation Barga’ movement, the CPM ensured that the sharecroppers' right to till the land would be protected and landowners can’t evict them from their land. These measures helped the party in electoral politics. Now, after 30 years as a ruling power, the CPM is faced with the dilemma of snatching the land back from the peasants for big business groups, multinationals and real estate profiteers.

Since the new industries are being set up by the private sector (in the case of Singur, Tata Motors will set up a automobile manufacturing unit), should the Left Front government keep the entire deal with Tata Motors and others under wrap? Since the government is acquiring private land in the name of ‘public interest’, do the people have the right to know what sort of public interest would be served by this initiative?

Despite repeated demands, the government is stonewalling all these questions and resorting to coercive measures to push the land acquisition drive. This has created a scenario where the poor peasants, hitherto a solid support base of the ruling Left, have been left with no option but to resist the strong-arm tactics of the government, the police and the goons of the CPM who operate as extra-constitutional power centres in most of Bengal. After Singur, we have witnessed similar agitations in Nandigram (East Midnapore) and Bhangar (South 24 Parganas).

At Nandigram, where the government is planning to acquire14/15,000 acres of land for setting up a SEZ (the Salim Group of Indonesia is planning a chemical hub here), people fought pitched battles with the police; seven villagers were killed in police firing, several others were injured. Seeing the determination of the protesting people of Nandigram, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who has become an ideological crusader for this massive big business and capitalist industrialisation programme, had to make a tactical retreat. But the government has not given up on this project. Hence, the uncanny debate remains alive, with the government refusing to divulge any information for public scrutiny.
According to one survey, more than 10,000 families live on the 1,000 acres in Singur. They include about 6,000 landholders, 1,200 registered sharecroppers, and 100 unregistered sharecroppers. Others living in the area since generations are landless labourers, artisans, small traders. There are thousands of regular, seasonal migrant workers who live on the same resources.

It is in this context that the people of Singur organised themselves under the Krishi Bhumi Raksha Committee, an alliance of about 10 organisations. And the fact is, this united resistance in Nandigram and Singur is resilient and strong. Surely, this is going to be a hard and protracted struggle. And it won’t be easy for the CPM-led Left Front government this time, even as it rhetorically opposes neo-liberal globalisation in Delhi, while backing it with brute force in West Bengal.’

'Singur, Nandigram people not consulted'
New Delhi, Feb. 2 (PTI): A fact-finding team that studied the situation in West Bengal's Singur and Nandigram that have been hit by violent protests on the SEZ issue today said the people of the area were not consulted on the land acquisition.

"The people there had not been consulted at any stage, nor had any elected body (panchayats or gram sansads) been called to discuss the issue," member of the enquiry committee Sumit Chakravarthy told a press conference here.

He said the situation in Singur and Nandigram was very serious and the authorities needed to tackle the issue immediately.

"People are strictly against the land acquisition process and are determined to hold on to their lands at all cost," Chakravarthy added.

The committee also studied the claims of the West Bengal government that Tata project and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) would create job opportunities in the state.

"People are totally sceptical about industries providing uneducated people like them with jobs. Moreover, several other such projects at Haldia and Jellingham have failed to do anything for displaced people," another member of the fact-finding team Dr Tanika Sarkar said.

She said people in Singur have refused to accept the compensation given by the government for their land as they felt the amount was well below the actual land price.

"At both the places unregistered sharecroppers and agricultural labourers were not included in the category of compensation receivers," Sarkar said.

The enquiry committee has recommended that the state government should take note of the factory sites that are deserted and such lands should be used for setting up SEZs.

"About 12,000 acres of agricultural land is said to be acquired for SEZs, thus displacing scores of people," she said, adding, "Industries these days do not produce large numbers of jobs and alternative sites can be acquired for industrialisation."

The intellectuals also demanded that all the prime land acquisition in the state should be made public.


SEZ: To Be or Not to Be
by Amarendra Kishore

Feb. 2, 2007
SEZ is a word which is much a fashion these days in economic, political and even social circles. Every business house wants to develop one for them, every state as many of them , and every person dreams of one near him. If this is the case, why our own state government is not trying to have even a single SEZ for them?

If we go by examples of other states, it looks like there is no way to survive in this world of competition without having SEZs. But, is this the case - as we all know our economy has come a long way and we are being recognized as a world economic power without having a single SEZ. Even the way industry is acquiring hundreds of acres of fertile land from the farmers in the name of economic development is very surprising. When 70 percent of our population still depends on land taking away fertile farm-lands this way for SEZ will do no favour but harm to our economy and environment the most. Then does it means, our state government is working in favour of farmers and in the larger interest of the state?

Probably not, SEZ is a good idea as far as it just means providing a common space and administration for industry to flourish in a manner never happened before. But it could be done without taking away in some ethical manner as well, which will be acceptable to everyone. For this, we can go for the bigger version of these SEZs - product SEZ, where a whole region or state will work as SEZ, proving a full setup for growth of one Industry. In these SEZ everybody will be get their share of fruit of development not just few people. Our state need this type product SEZ at most, we can go for agricultural, industrial and service products like - sugar, dairy, textile, tourism, education, medicine. These product SEZ will concentrate on the whole range of activity related to one product, in this way involving people from every walk of life. This concept goes well with PPP - public, private participation - as well. So, the option is very clear for our state government, go for their own way to set up product SEZs, and not the SEZs the whole country is talking about. As we need prosperity of everyone not for a bunch of people.

Hope the government will work on this concept and make our state the front-runner the way it once was.