Woolmer, Nandigram , RTI and The Post modern Manusmriti

Woolmer, Nandigram , RTI and The Post modern Manusmriti

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - Fifty Nine

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/

Woolmer is no more. His suspicious death tells the story. This is cricket no More!
Had it been Cricket Azharuddin, the Wrist player would not have succumbed to Betting!
Had it been Cricket at all Cronje would have been alive and so Bob Woolmer!

This is all round business in this Global Village where no space remains for Humanity!
Thus Death of Woolmer relates to Singur and nandigram!
Nandigram is not just the name of a village, it’s perhaps a symbol of poor people up against a state determined to push ahead with industrialisation!

The government of India is still in dilemma on the issue of SEZs. The disorganized policies and poor implementation process at ground level is giving the sign of premature death of the concept of SEZ in India!

Hours ahead of the United Progressive Alliance-Left Coordination Committee meeting on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the Nandigram violence was a sad incident and should not have taken place!

"It was a very sad incident. It should not have happened," Dr Singh said in his first public reaction to the violence that left 14 people dead in Nandigram last week.

The prime minister was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Defence Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.The issue had rocked both House of Parliament with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance opposition stalling proceedings, demanding the resignation of Left Front government in West

CPIM polit bureau and central cabinet did not allow Buddhadev to resign. He is ithe new Stalin in the Writers and everyone seems to be plotting against the Poet!

The chief secretary and Home secretary are accustomed to run the administration at their will without considering either constitutional or political obligations!

At least three other Chief ministers are working in the state!

Laxman seth, the CPIM MP who is behind the Nandigram Notification and the ensuing Civil War!

Nirupam sen, the Industry Minister, tipped to be the next CM has not to wait. He has taken over as far as the industrialisation is concerned. He replaced Somnath chatterjee in this role!
Ashok Bhattachary, the DON of North Bengal!
Ministers want his head!
Subhash Chakrabarti, Nanda Dulal Bandopadhyay, Rezzak Ali Mulla and Kshiti Goswami are in the Lead!

The possibility of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee's resignation hung heavy in the corridors of Writers' Building till late Monday evening. As the opposition continued to ponder 'will he, won't he', an announcement from the Left Front top rung put an end to all speculations. Committed supporters of Bengal's red bastion heaved a sigh of relief as the Left Front decided to go easy on matters like land acquisition and setting up of special economic zones.Bhattacharjee had considered resigning, failing to counter the criticisms unleashed on him and his party by friends and foes alike for the so-called 'planned genocide at Nandigram.'


The same political aide to chief minister's office who had spoken to rediff.com about Bhattacharjee's intent to step down on Monday said over telephone a day after, "I have never seen Buddhababu as perturbed as he was yesterday. He wore a grim face, a vacant look... he was visibly shaken by the people's outcry," he said.


"The chief minister muttered 'resignation' many times before and during his parleys with other CPI-M leaders."

According to the aide, Bhattacharjee changed his mind only after a prolonged close-door meeting with the CPI-M top brass, including the former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and CPI-M State Secretary Biman Bose. "Basu took Buddhababu under his wings and forbade him to make any statement to the press."

Right to information has become a very serious joke in West Bengal.

Writers building lacks the minimum transparency.
No information is available from bhawani Bhavan as far as SEZ drive, singur and Nandigram are concerned!
Post modern Manusmriti

Globalisation is the Post Modern Manusmriti. A new varnashram is introduced based on purchaing power! The world faces a post modern Shudrayan Drive by Hindutva cum Zionist corporate Imperialism. global market is a War declared against peasant, labour classes, Dalits, tribals and minorities.

The war mechanism is changed!

Bengal Government Claims Busted

A report released by a committee of Singur-based organisations investigating the Singur unrest in West Bengal over a land deal between the government and Tata Motors has revealed that the government's claim of most of the land being waste was utterly false.Two journalists working for the TV station Tara News, Gouranga Hazra and Bholanath Bijali, are reportedly being held by members of West Bengal’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) after vanishing on 14 March in Nandigram (West Bengal), where violent clashes have erupted between farmers and police allied with CPIM activists.Reporters Without Borders is concerned about the difficulties journalists have in visiting and working in the area, where police and local authorities have shown great hostility towards the media.Lies often acquire a life of their own and it takes just one incident for the truth to come out. The CPI(M) is realising this to its utter discomfort. The Nandigram massacre stripped the CPI(M) of its carefully cultivated facade of hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness that used to mask its Stalinist impulses and its spurious faith in democracy.

Those who refused to buy the dream of the CPI(M)-ordained “honey-flowing Nandigram” were brutally murdered by the party militia. Leaders belonging to the Congress and the BJP, who visited ground zero, have come out with reports about what they saw and experienced at Nandigram. In this East Midnapore village, dozens of men, women and children were wantonly killed. And hundreds of children were orphaned.

THE CBI has sent an eight-member team of senior officials to Nandigram again after it found the evidence collected by the earlier team inadequate.

The fresh batch reached Nandigram today to collect more evidence. The team is led by M L Sharma, Special Director, Central Bureau of Investigation.

Amidst protests and walk-out by opposition parties, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee justified the police firing at Nandigram in which 14 villagers were killed, while reiterating that the SEZ would not be set up there against the wishes of people. In the House, bereft of the opposition, the chief minister making a statement on the Nandigram incident said that no government could accept absence of rule of law in any part of a state. For two and a half months, the administration could not function at Nandigram, he said. He said that the government decided that this situation could not go on and action by the police was initiated. Bhattacharjee welcomed the Calcutta High Court ordering a CBI probe into the police firing and said that he was contemplating a judicial inquiry. Bhattacharjee said the action by police was initiated on March 14 as his government had decided that the prevailing situation in Nandigram could not go on. Bhattacharjee also informed the House that a total of 14 people were killed in the firing, and 113 others, including 42 policemen, were injured in the violence.

Meanwhile main opposition leader Mamata Banerjee, who was prevented from going to Nandigram on March 14 night by CPI-M activists, reached Nandigram on March 15 morning, but had to be hospitalised after she was taken ill. She returned to Kolkata after her condition stabilized. Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who strongly expressed his unhappiness at the Nandigram incident, too visited the troubled areas and met the injured in hospital.

In a statement, Gandhi had said on March 14 that the killing of people could have been avoided. "What is the public purpose served by the use of force that we witnessed?" Expressing "a sense of cold horror" at the incident, he had urged the state government to mitigate the effects of the "bitter" incident quickly. The issue also rocked Parliament where the opposition demanded immediate dismissal of the West Bengal government.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, L K Advani said, "I'm outraged at the happenings in Nandigram. We are horrified that so many persons have already died, many more are critical and dozens of others have been grievously injured as a result of the pre-planned and cold-blooded firing by the police in cahoots with members of CPM." Home Secretary of the state, P R Roy conceded that the administration was caught off-guard by the strong resistence by villagers, which led to the violence.

The clashes occured when police tried to force their way into several villages from which they had been barred for over two months by people who dug deep trenches in roads to prevent them from entering. The roads were dug up following protests against the acquisition of land for a SEZ proposed to be set up by Indonesia's Salim Group.

Notwithstanding the West Bengal Government's decision to stop acquisition of land at Nandigram, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today hinted at continuing the agitation against the Tatas car project in Singur till the land was returned to farmers. "We will give our lives and force the Government to return to farmers the land taken forcibly. Peace will return only after they return the farmland," Banerjee here said.

Told that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had asserted that Tata project would be come up, she said "The Chief Minister will not have the last word. It is people of Singur who will have the last word."

The TC supremo, who visited the house of Haradhan Bag, a leader of 'Save Farmland Committee' who had committed suicide, said Singur was a symbol of the agitation against farmland acquisition.Reiterating that her party was not against industrialsation, Banerjee said it would not allow forcible acquisition of agricultural land in the name of setting up industries.

The government both at central level and on the state level has been, it seems, have failed to deliver the original concept of SEZ to the Indian people. Now, the result for the failure of the government policy on this and delaying the running projects has started coming. The South Korean steel major, Posco, is ready to give first blow to the government.According to a report, Posco is planning to shift its focus to Vietnam. It had proposed to establish a $1 billion steel plant at Ba Ria-Vung Tau in August 2006. The company has aimed to put up the plant in two phases for hot and cold rolled coils by 2012 with an annual production target of three million tonnes of steel.
Earlier, the company showed interest to set up a $12 billion 12-mtpa steel plant near Paradeep in Orissa.

It was being said as the biggest Greenfield project in the world.

On this report, a senior official said that Posco is showing great impatient. It may not wait too long. Both the Centre and state governments are trying hard to to push the Posco case.


But, Posco is not going to believe on the state government. The Company is watching that the ground reality of the protracted resistance is completely different from government’s saying on the matter

The report says further that the government is still not able to enter the area though some portion of the estimated 4,000 acre required for the project.

The land has been technically acquired and handed over for the plant. Kalinganagar, Singur and now Nandigram incidents have made the problem worse than ever.
Read The story

Trouble in Maha Mumbai SEZ as women beat officers
Two officers of the Reliance group were roughed up and chased away by irate women in this town Tuesday while distributing compensation to the farmers whose lands are being acquired for the proposed Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

The women were angry because one of the Reliance officers expressed his inability to make payment at the rate of Rs.1 million per acre to those farmers who had made sale-deeds at the rate of Rs.600,000 per acre some months back but were promised Rs.1 million - the rate being offered this month, an affected farmer said.

The women, who had gathered at an appointed place to collect their payment in response to a message that cheques would be distributed, asked for payment at the new rate offered by the company. The company personnel, however, expressed their inability to do so.

Now, Hooda faces opposition to SEZ

At a time when SEZs have turned politically flammable, a move seems to be gathering pace to raise the ante on one of the biggest ones — the one coming up in Haryana.There are efforts to erect a front of forces opposed to Haryana CM B S Hooda and the project by knocking dissident Haryana Congress leaders, the Om Prakash Chautala-led opposition in the state and the Samajwadi Party, ever ready to fish into Congress’ troubled waters, into a combination.

When approached SP general secretary Amar Singh confirmed that he had held discussions on the issue with Chautala and former Haryana CM-turned Congress dissident, Bhajan Lal. Neither Chautala and nor Bhajan Lal are known to have any ideological axe to grind against SEZs or economic reforms in general. While Chautala, routed in the last assembly elections, obviously sensed that the situation has turned ripe to harry the Congress government, Bhajan Lal is also raring to get his own back on Hooda whom he holds responsible for his son, Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi, being consigned to the organisational dog house.

SEZs not to impact agriculture


The government said on Wednesday the setting up of special economic zones would not impact agriculture production in the country as the land needed for them is just a small fraction of the total cultivable land.

"In the 234 SEZs, given formal approvals, the total land acquired is 33,807 hectares. This extent of land would not hamper the agriculture production as the total land under cultivation in the country is over 100 million hectares," Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh told Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question.

Of the total land, he said, needed for the SEZs, with formal approval around 17,800 hectares was already with state government agencies while the remaining land has been acquired by private developers.

Ramesh also highlighted the innovative means of land acquisition adopted by Mahindra World City in Rajasthan. ".. over 2,000 acres of land is being acquired for the SEZ that has received in-principle approval and farmers are being given 25 per cent of the developed land in lieu of cash compensation," he said.

In reply to another question, Ramesh said of the 234 SEZs granted formal approvals, 147 of them are for IT, ITeS and electronic hardware manufacturing while 92 were for manufacturing and five for services. Of the 162 proposals with in-principle clearance, 121 are for manufacturing sector.

Dharna in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Social activists from all over the country on Monday began a month-long dharna here to protest the police firing on villagers agitating against land acquisition in Nandigram in West Bengal.The protestors also sat on a one-day hunger strike to express solidarity with the residents of Nandigram. The demonstration titled 'Action 2007' will continue until mid-April and at least 400 activists from different parts of India have already gathered at Jantar Mantar and hundreds more are expected to join the agitation. A section of the road leading to Janpath has been blocked off and a five-foot high makeshift memorial for the victims of Nandigram was piled with flowers.

The dharna began amidst slogan-shouting to demand Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's resignation as Chief Minister of West Bengal, protest against the SEZ policy and the violence in Nandigram among other issues. Back from a two-day visit to Nandigram, activist Medha Patkar demanded a fair inquiry into the police action there and was confident they will get a concrete response within this year itself.

Speaking to the media, she supported the protest in Nandigram and called the victims of the violence martyrs.

Nandigram bloodbath puts WB’s land acquisition policy on hold

Nandigram in West Bengal has emerged as the lightning rod for criticism of the government’s economic policies. While previous clashes here over the proposed Special Economic Zone (SEZ) have killed at least seven people including a policeman, the events of March 14 put a halt to the West Bengal government’s industrialisation bid and has forced a re-think at the national level.
Read the story:
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/147295/1/1893

Nandigram
Filed under: Growth, Infrastructure, Agriculture — Naveen @ 1:19 pm
This video of the Nandigram issue is distressing. I think one of the most cogent views on the SEZ issue are summed up by Nitin Desai in the article Are SEZs a good idea?
http://indianeconomy.org/2007/03/19/nandigram/


The Finance ministery is concerned with Revenue loss and the commerce minster works in accordance with WTO directives.

This is how the Government of india, a Repressive Hindutva cum Zionist, Imperialist cum Feudalist,
Nazi, Promoter cum NRI polity well exposed in Gujrat, Ayodhya, North east and now West Bengal , works!

Special Economic Zones may not get special treatment from the Reserve Bank of India. Much against the government's wishes, RBI has reiterated that loans to SEZs carry a commercial risk and should be treated as such, reports CNBC-TV18. The RBI in its draft prudential norms for capital adequacy framework has once again highlighted that loans given by banks for SEZ's will continue to be treated as loans to commercial real estate. According to the RBI "Commercial real estate exposure is defined as "fund based and non-fund based exposures, which includes land acquisition, development and construction, setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) or for acquiring units in SEZs".


Bengal divided: Price of growth
CNN-IBN
Read in details:
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/bengal-divided-price-of-growth/36367-3.html

Till now the farmers were committing suicides in India but now they are being killed by the government. Is this the democracy for what our former leaders had fought with British rule? This is all happening in the name of creating Special Economic Zones (SEZs) now.

Medha Patkar said:

Police is still stationed in Nandigram. Similar incident can take place again.

Trinamool Congress leader Mamta Banerjee said:

Why can’t this chief minister be arrested? He is playing the game of criminals. It doesn’t work in a democracy.
Read:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/section/frontpage/index.asp
No special treatment for SEZs, says RBI
2007-03-21 19:22:29 Source : Moneycontrol.com

Outrage after Indian state kills peasants in Nandigram
by Anindya Bhattacharyya

“Bodies were scattered all over the paddy fields, smeared with blood. The injured were screaming for help – and police kept kicking them.”

That was the testimony of a villager from Nandigram in the Indian state of West Bengal after thousands of armed police attacked a protest by peasants against plans to impose a neoliberal “special economic zone” (SEZ) on the area.

Shockingly, the massacre was presided over by West Bengal’s left wing state government.
Read:
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=10981

In New delhi, Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on Monday named the two women who had been allegedly raped by police during last week's raid in Nandigram reportedly to corner the ruling CPI (M) in West Bengal.When asked how could she identify the rape victims, "Their names have already appeared in an English daily," she was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.
Sushma said she had met the alleged rape victims and narrated their story of chase and assaulted by the policemen.Swaraj, who visited Nandigram as part of an NDA delegation on Saturday, referred to allegations that police raiding the village killed schoolchildren brutally and threw their bodies into a river.She also lashed out at both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for their "silence" over Nandigram.

Nandigram rape: CPM man owns up, A statesman Story

Joydeep Thakur
NANDIGRAM, March 20: Villagers have been looking for some people who came in on 14 March disguised as policemen to rape and murder women. They chanced upon Sahadev Pramanick (30), who had raped at least two women. The CPI-M activist from Gangra, Sonachura, left the village after the first spell of violence in January and sought refuge in a party camp at Khejuri. Last evening, whilst trying to sneak into Sonachura along with four accomplices, he found himself captured. Pramanick admitted to two rapes, including that of a 13-year-old girl. “At least 17 girls were raped inside a deserted house near Bhangabera on 14 March when police opened fire near a bridge. The victims were dragged into the house of Shankar Samanta by CPI-M cadres,” Pramanick said. Samanta had been burnt alive by villagers on 7 January and his dwelling since then lay vacant.
CBI officials have visited it, collecting pieces of torn cloth, bangles and undergarments. It was also stained with blood. Villagers had heard women forced into the house cry out in agony but there were CPI-M goons guarding it. Haldia’s sub-divisional police officer, Mr Swapan Saha, said if the CBI wanted Pramanick for interrogation, he would be handed over to it.

CBI officials said they were trying to trace some people in Nandigram and adjacent areas but refused to disclose anything else. According to CBI sources, findings of the new team would be included in the report that would be submitted to the Calcutta High Court.

The earlier 15-member CBI team comprised 10 Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) officers. It was sent to Nandigram following a High Court order.

“Our findings and collected evidence would raise questions on the role of police in the March 14 firing,” a senior CBI officer who was part of the earlier team said. “Let us now see what the state police come out with after their probe.”

Meanwhile, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police started its investigations today. The CID team is led by Deputy Inspector General Nirajnayan Pandey. The team has visited various parts of Nandigram Block 1, including Bhangabera and Sonachura villages, and has started collecting evidence. “It is too early to comment on our findings,” Pandey today told Newsline.

Asked if the CID team had found any evidence that might indict the police, as the opposition parties had done, Pandey said: “It is very easy to blame the police.”

Meanwhile, A K Sahay, Superintendent of CBI’s Special Crime Branch in Kolkata, did not want to comment on the nerw CBI team that reached Nandigram on the fact-finding mission.


Nandigram locals recount nights of terror
Read the story:
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=nandigramviolence&slug=Nandigram+locals+recount+nights+of+terror&id=102340&callid=1&category=National

All steps taken in 'consultation' with Buddhadeb: Home Secy.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee was aware of an intelligence report about possible violence at Nandigram before the police operation there on March 14, and all steps had been taken in "consultation" with him, Home Secretary P R Roy said here today.

"The Chief Minister was informed of the intelligence report. All steps were taken in consultation with the Chief Minister," Roy said, discounting reports in a section of the media that Bhattacharjee, who holds the Police portfolio, was unaware of the likely fallout before the March 14 police action at Nandigram that left 14 dead. He said that massive police deployment was made at Nandigram on the morning of March 14, the Chief Minister was informed of the intelligence report and necessary steps taken thereafter.

On the CID inquiry ordered yesterday by the government, the Home Secretary said a CID team was inquiring on the basis of an FIR by the CBI with the Khejuri police station against the 10 persons arrested with arms at Nandigram on Saturday.

Roy said the State Government was preparing papers for filing of affidavits in the Calcutta High Court.

Even as the Left Front chairman, Mr Biman Bose, restricted himself to describing the Nandigram incident as “tragic” and “unfortunate”, he gave a fresh twist to the killings by blaming national and international forces while addressing ousted villagers this evening. “National and international forces want to fuel unrest among poor people so that the pace of progress is arrested. To this end, these forces used extreme Left and extreme Right parties in Nandigram”.

Caveat in SC urging the hearing of Nandigram firing case
21 March, 2007

An advocate Kalyan Bandhyopadhyay has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court praying not to do anything in the Nandigram matter without hearing the Nadigram police firing case.

The caveat filed through advocate Bijan Ghosh also says the state of West Bengal is likely to file an appeal against a Calcutta High Court order dated March 15, ordering a CBI inquiry into the police firing on the farmers agitating against acquisition of their land for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Nandigram in West Bengal, in which over 10 farmers were killed and many injured.

According to the caveator, officials from West Bengal have already reached here and the Special Leave Petition is likely to be filed either today or tomorrow.

The High Court took suo motu cognizance of the media report and issued directions for a CBI inquiry to fix responsibility on the officials who ordered the firing.

The Left Front government in West Bengal, under pressure from all sides, has already put on hold the land acquisition.

The caveator also prayed that no interim relief be granted to the state government or its officials without hearing the case.


Right to Information Act
We all pay taxes. Even a beggar on the street pays sales tax when he buys anything from the market. This money belongs to us. But where does this money go? Why are there no medicines in the hospitals? Why are people dying of starvation? Why are the roads in such pathetic conditions? Why are the taps dry?

Now we have a right to question governments. The Parliament of India has passed Right to Information Laws, which empower citizens to question the government, inspect their files, take copies of government documents and also to inspect government works.
Read More:
http://www.ndtv.com/rti/default.asp

Nandigram: CBI slams cops, outsiders

ibnlive.com
WAR ZONE: Three police officers in Nandigram, Khejuri and Sutahata areas of West Bengal have been removed.

Kolkata: The CBI team investigating the incident of farmers killing in Nandigram released its initial report on Wednesday. The report confirmed that outsiders were involved in the violence that took place on March 14. The pattern of firing and the bullets recovered from the site points to the fact that some other people apart from the police also used firearms at the site, says the report.
It also said that most of the bullet wounds were above the torso, which is not the case in police firing. The agency reportedly found that a large number of bullets recovered from the scenes of mayhem did not match the type of ammunition used by the cops.Five out of the ten people taken into custody on suspicion confessed having links with the youth wing of a political party adds the report.

Meanwhile, officers-in-charge of three police stations, in Nandigram, Khejuri and Sutahata areas of West Bengal were removed on Wednesday.

"The three officers have gone for pre-promotion training," Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said.


Opposition parties, however, claimed that the officers were "transferred" in the wake of the March 14 police firing in which at least 14 people were killed.


"We want to know the real reason behind the transfer of the three OCs when a CBI probe is on," Manas Bhuniya, leader of Congress Legislature Party in West Bengal Assembly was quoted as saying.


"And, if the OCs were transferred, then why will the SP, DIG and IG (Western Range) will go get away free?" Bhuniya questioned.

Forward Bloc blasts West Bengal Govt.

Days after agreeing at a Left Front meeting that its partners would not air their views in public, a constituent of West Bengal's ruling coalition today alleged the Nandigram issue had arisen from the "high-handedness" of the state government that had sullied its image irreparably.

"The government's impatience and high-handedness aggravated the situation in Nandigram and has irreparably tarnished the pro-people image of the Left Front government, which was a model," Forward Bloc general secretary and MP Debabrata Biswas told reporters here after a three-day meeting of the party's central committee.

"The central committee severely condemns the police firing in Nandigram on March 14. It is an unfortunate and tragic incident," Biswas said. "It has caused major damage to the Left and the progressive movement in the country."

Forward Bloc's attack on the state government's handling of the issue came despite an official announcement of a rapproachement among Left Front partners on the Nandigram issue on March 17.

"The anguish and disappointment expressed by writers, intellectuals, cultural activists and academicians should be taken into consideration and honoured. The Left Front should correct its policy approach on the basis of anguish expressed by the intelligentsia and common people," the party's Central Committee said.

Industry to be patient after Nandigram tragedy
Nandigram might have triggered extreme reactions from the saddened intellectuals but corporate leaders in West Bengal are no less accommodative and patient to the excruciating process of transition in the state from agriculture to industry.
Please Raed:
http://www.indiaprwire.com/businessnews/20070320/21592.htm

ALL OUTSTANDING SEZ ISSUES AND CONCERNS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSIDERATION: ASHWANI KUMAR

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=26301

All outstanding concerns and issues pertaining to Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have been placed before the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) and are currently under consideration, Shri Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, said in a statement in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

Since land is a state subject, acquisition of land comes under the purview of the state governments. Each State acquires land for various purposes and has its own compensation and Relief & Rehabilitation measures depending upon the requirements and necessities of respective states. These are applicable for acquisition of land for industrial purposes also. Besides, the government had formulated the National Policy on Resettlement and Rehabilitation of Project Affected Families in 2003, which lays down minimum provisions of benefits to be given to project affected people, and is applicable to projects displacing 500 families or more en masse in plain areas of 250 families or more in hilly and tribal areas. The policy provides broad guidelines for all concerned and offers minimum provisions, while the states or public sector units have the option to offer better benefit packages. Moreover, the government is currently formulating a revised rehabilitation policy namely the National Rehabilitation Policy 2007 with the objective to minimise displacement and to promote, as far as possible, non-displacing or least displacing alternatives, ensure adequate rehabilitation packages and expeditious implementation of the rehabilitation process with the active participation of the displaced persons. As and when the new policy is implemented, it will apply to acquisition of land for industries.

As per information available, some cases of protests by farmers have been reported in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra against acquisition of land by State Government for setting up industries including SEZs, he said in a statement laid on the table of the House.

Nod for SEZs coming up on barren land in West Bengal

NEW DELHI, MAR 19 : The CPI(M) on Monday declared that the West Bengal government decided to go ahead with those SEZ projects which do not require any displacement.