M'rashtra seeks clarification on land acquisition

Maharashtra government which is facing the heat over land acquisition for the special economic zones (SEZs) has written to the Centre asking it to clarify the scope of the term `compulsory land acquisition'. As it did not receive clear guidelines from the Centre on the issue, even after over one month and half month after the empowered group of ministers (EGOM) took the decision to prohibit all compulsory land acquisition for SEZs.

It may be recalled that the EGOM on SEZ led by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in its meeting on April 5 took a decision to cap the size of SEZs to 5,000 hectares and to bar state governments from making compulsory land acquisitions for SEZs.

Since then, a confusion has prevailed in the Maharashtra government quarters over land acquisition for Reliance Industries' promoted Mumbai SEZ and six other SEZs for whom the state government is acquiring the land.

While for Reliance Industries SEZ, the state government's revenue ministry is acquiring over 10,000 hectares in Raigad district.

The state government's industrial infrastructure arm Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) is acquiring land for six other SEZs which includes Mahindra-promoted SEZ at Karla in Pune district area 1,000 hectare, Bharat Forge-promoted SEZ at Chakan area, 2,000-hectare, Videocon Industries-promoted two SEZs of 1,000 hectare and 2,500 hectare respectively at Wagholi Pune district and at Aurngabad, Supreme Petrochem's SEZ at Raigad district which is over 100 hectares and Indiabull's SEZ at Alibaug in Raigad district spread over 2,700 hectare.

On the one hand, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh maintains that there will be no compulsory land acquisitions if a farmer objects to his or her land being acquired. However, State Revenue Minister Narayan Rane whose department is carrying out the acquisitions for the Mumbai SEZ is maintaining that unless the state government gets a clear order from the Centre banning such land acquisition, it will not acquire any land.

A senior bureaucrat from state government said, "despite almost one and half month has passed since EGOM?s meeting has taken place, new rules under SEZ Act have not been framed by the commerce ministry and which is creating the confusion over land acquisition scenario. So we had asked for clarification from commerce ministry on this issue, before new rules are drafted and duly notified in the gazette".

Confirming that the state government has written to the state industry secretary V K Jairath said, "No clarification has been sought from the Centre, in fact all state governments were asked to give their views on this issue, by the Centre, we have given our views on this issue and have asked for final instructions."