Maharashtra not to acquire land for SEZ

In a volte face on the land acquisition issue for Reliance Industries promoted Mumbai Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Raigad district, state revenue minister Narayan Rane said, "The state government will not acquire land for SEZ. Promoters of the SEZ should directly deal with the farmers."

Despite Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and other senior Congress leaders maintaining that there will be no compulsory land acquisition, Rane was maintaining that unless the state receives clear-cut guidelines from the Centre, barring the state government from compulsory land acquisition for SEZs, land acquisition process for Mumbai SEZ will continue.

Rane's stand is considered to be a major setback for Reliance Industries who want to acquire 10,000 hectares for the SEZ.

It is also believed that Rane's change of heart has come out of both political and administrative compulsions. The party high command was not happy with Rane's open defiance of his boss (the chief minister). It feared that his statements will cost his party dear. Besides, this under land acquisition act, once a process is initiated it needs to be completed within one year and deadline for completing the process has ended on May 31.

While speaking to reporters at his chambers in Mantralya Rane said, "The land acquisition process is just to inform farmers what price their land will fetch according to government norms. Then they can decide whether to sell the land to company or not."

Rane was hinting at Reliance offering A much larger compensation package compared to the government rates.

Konkan's per capita income is much less compare to rest of the state and paddy crop is not economically lucrative crop to farmers. And Konkan needs such development projects to come up to the level of other regions, he claimed.

In the name of protecting farmer's interest some brokers have got involved in the anti-SEZ agitation, who are misleading the farmers, Rane alleged.