 "Bharat Forge's SEZ hits rough patch as farmer's get political support")
Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), a political party focused on farmers’ issue, has taken up the cause of farmers who sold their land to Bharat Forge for setting up of an SEZ in the area.
Raju Shetti, the chief of SSS and the only member of Parliament from his party, has started an agitation with the local farmers and also criticized the recently proposed Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015. He has termed the bill as anti-farmer.
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"Bharat Forge’ SEZ land issue is a classic case of failure of Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill. I am not against development or if airport is coming up in the area. I am agitating in favour of farmers. The company has already acquired 1,750 hectares of land in Khed for SEZ. The land now has got NA status. As a result farmers neither can do farming on this land nor get employment or benefits of SEZ. In November, chairman of Kalyani Group, Baba Kalyani had promised me to look into the matter, but nothing has happened and has not taken any concrete decision," said Shetti in an exclusive talk with Business Standard.
The SEZ a 76:24 JV between BFL and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), the state's nodal agency for industrialisation, with the latter handling the land acquisition process. The JV had spent around Rs 290 crore in acquiring the land. The estimated investments required for this SEZ was of Rs 9,000 crore.
Shetti has demanded to give the land back to the farmers. Shetti in an earlier statement said: "Bharat Forge had acquired 1,750 hectares in Khed (Rajgurunagar) near Pune in 2007. The SEZ did not take off in the last seven years due to poor response from the industry. It was planned to attract domestic automobile industry and the local suppliers in this area. The company is now planning to sell the land for proposed Chakan Airport project for record profit margins. However, Bharat Forge must return the land to the farmers."
When enquired if the company is utilising the land for developing an airport, an official response said: “Our company is not in the airport business and as of now, we have no intention to enter this business.”
Post the acquisition of the land Bharat Forge had created a company for the industrial development of Khed called the Khed Economic Infrastructure.
When asked for the reasons for the delay, officials from the company said the reasons are well known. “Government of India’s SEZ Policy had been amended in February 2011 resulting in imposition of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) and Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) on SEZ developers and units located in SEZs. Recently the government has notified certain relaxations in SEZ Rules which now permit development of social or commercial infrastructure and other facilities to be used by both SEZ and DTA entities with no exemptions, concessions or drawback admissible for creation of such infrastructure,” they said.
The official response further said: “Government of Maharashtra’s Integrated Industrial Area policy which was announced as part of the New Industrial policy in February 2013 which provides as exit option for de-notified/withdrawn SEZ is also understood to be under finalization. As a result we are experiencing renewed investor interest from domestic and global companies wanting to set up manufacturing facilities in Khed City.”
Shetti also alleged that the KDL officials were not even able to show the land to industry minister of Maharashtra Subhash Desai in a meeting at Mantralaya recenlty.
In August 2013, Bharat Forge had announced that it plans to convert its Chakan SEZ into an integrated industrial area and become the first company to take advantage of the Maharashtra government’s new industrial policy, which allows developers to exit projects to build industrial parks. Even that has not been materialised so far, said the farmers.
However, it was made mandatory for the promoter to use 60 per cent land for industrial use, 30 per cent for residential and 10 per cent for commercial purposes.