| In sharp contrast to the stand taken by the commerce secretary, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has said the Centre can review all special economic zones (SEZs) in Goa as it does not want to thrust SEZs on states. |
| The Goa government had, on December 31, decided to scrap all 15 SEZs, including the three notified ones, following widespread protests from the ruling Congress and the main Opposition, BJP. |
| "The Centre can review all Goa SEZs," Nath said after meeting Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat here. |
| Nath said there was "absolute provision" in the SEZ Act for everything, including review of the notified zones. |
| Commerce Secretary Gopal Pillai had said yesterday the Centre could not de-notify the three SEZs as they had become "legal entities" after the notification. |
| Kamat said the state government would send the formal communication for scrapping these SEZs to the Centre by next Monday. "The ground realities are different. By and large, people (of Goa) do not want SEZs," Kamat said, adding the state government would go in accordance with the law. |
| Meanwhile, the state BJP questioned the premise under which these industrial enclaves were allotted land. |
| "If you go through the records, the faulty land allotment procedure is reason enough to de-notify these SEZs," BJP leader and Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar said, alleging that in some cases land was allotted even before the state government had formulated the SEZ policy. |
| "Even before the state cabinet could adopt the policy, the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), citing the government's intention to have SEZs, allotted lands," Parrikar told reporters. |
| The BJP said the party would file criminal cases against the GIDC for fraudulently allotting land for setting up SEZs. |
| "We will file criminal cases against the GIDC managing director and others responsible for allotting lands to the SEZ promoters even before the policy was formulated," Parrikar added. |
| Anti-SEZ groups have been pointing out that these enclaves will not generate enough employment for locals and strain the state's infrastructure. |
| Kamat, who was trying to get over the controversy by scrapping 12 such zones and asking the Centre to de-notify three others, faced more trouble when the commerce secretary said the ministry could not de-notify any zone. |
| Anti-SEZ groups say the zones will put heavy burden on infrastructure and change the demography of the state as people from other states will migrate here in large numbers. |
| The SEZs will occupy large tracts of land and create few jobs for the locals, they say. |
Explore Business Standard