Noida land for SEZ is not an issue: ADAG

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) is expected to put forward to the Uttar Pradesh and the Centre, that the board of approval (BOA) guidelines are not applicable for acquisition of 2,500 acres for its multi-product SEZ in Noida.

The reasoning is that unlike in the case of other Special Export Zones (SEZs), the land in Noida is owned by the New Okhla Industrial Authority (NOIDA) and can be leased only to users like ADAG.

ADAG has signed an agreement with NOIDA for 2,500 acres on a 70-year lease. They have already been given 500 acres. The remaining 2000 acres was notified by the authority in 2004, as part of land to be acquired under the masterplan.

Any land owned by farmers in the notified area cannot be sold to anyone except NOIDA.

The New Okhla Industrial Authority was set up by an act of the Uttar Pradesh government. So the BOA guideline that states can assist in the acquisition of land for such projects, provided that there was no objection from farmers, did not hold good in this case, ADAG will tell the state government.

The project suffered a setback when the state cabinet on Saturday recommended to the Centre that the SEZ was not in line with the commerce ministry's guidelines on SEZs, and therefore "not feasible".

A state government spokesperson said that forcible acquisition of farmers' land was prohibited. ADAG requires at least 2,000 acres more and this cannot be provided without "forcible acquisition of land."

An ADAG spokesman declined to comment on the issue.

The Mayawati government had raised objections over the SEZ immediately after assuming power in May, and had set up a committee of secretaries (headed by Industrial Development Commissioner Atul Gupta) to review the SEZ policy of the previous government.

The state government raised two issues: That the promoters were facing difficulty in acquiring land and that there were complaints against the promoters.

The state government's spokesperson pointed out that the government would not get involved in acquiring land in view of the farmers' protests against such acquisition and this made the project unfeasible.

Earlier, the state government had also referred the ADAG proposal to the Centre as this does not conform to the guidelines laid down by the commerce ministry.

The state government had said that under the SEZ guidelines, no SEZ should be located on a contiguous plot. In this case, a road ran between the two plots and this violated the guidelines. However, the issue was clarified and the board of approval gave the project the green signal.