BJP wants its govts not to acquire land for SEZs

Buying of land should be left to developers and land owners: Venkaiah.

The BJP will advise the states it rules to not acquire land for special economic zones (SEZs) and leave this to SEZ promoters and land owners.

This was stated by senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu while releasing a report on SEZs commissioned by the party. Naidu was the chairman of the committee tasked with finalising the report.

This follows BJP President Rajnath Singh's visit to Singur in West Bengal to oppose land acquisition for a Tata Motors' project.

Naidu said that even the Gujarat government, which showed alacrity in acquiring land for SEZs, "shall be told not to aquire land from farmers and ask SEZ promoters to arrive at terms and conditions with farmers."

The BJP held the view that the state governments should not aquire land like "land sharks" at low rates and sell it to SEZs at a higher price, thereby leaving farmers in the lurch.

"We have observed that this has been happening in several states, the practice is anti-people," said Naidu.

The BJP-ruled states include Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. Gujarat has cornered 18 proposed SEZs. Rajasthan has got approvals for three information technology SEZs.

The BJP, author of India's first SEZ policy in 2000, said it was not against SEZs but objected to its "misuse" by several states to drive up real estate prices and misusing farm land.

"We have a population growth rate of 1.8 per cent per annum and the agricultural sector is growing at 1.3 per cent. Acquisition of agricultural land and multi-crop land will be playing around with our food security," said Naidu.

"One of the major scandals of the UPA government is the manner in which it has permitted the mushrooming of over 400 proposed SEZs all over the country," said Naidu.

"By distorting a sound SEZ policy formulated by the previous NDA government, the UPA has allowed many promoters to turn SEZs into the biggest land grab racket in the history of independent India," he said.