Option before Govt: lifting freeze on SEZs with no land problems

With even UPA allies like the DMK pressing for an end to the freeze on Special Economic Zones...

With even UPA allies like the DMK pressing for an end to the freeze on Special Economic Zones SEZs, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has given the Government the go-ahead to take steps to lift the freeze on notification of those SEZs that do not have encumbrances on account of land acquisition.

The decision to try and defreeze these SEZ notifications was taken after Gandhi chaired a meeting last Thursday. Present at the meeting were External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee 8212; he heads the Empowered Group of Ministers EGoM 8212; Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Congress president8217;s political secretary Ahmed Patel and former chief ministers Digvijay Singh and Veerappa Moily.

The talks at 10, Janpath were followed by a meeting between Mukherjee and Kamal Nath yesterday where it was decided to hold the EGoM meeting on April 11.

Congress sources said that while Gandhi backed the SEZs, she made it clear that the Government would have to tread very carefully on issues involving land acquisition.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave on March 23, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said the government was ready to make 8220;necessary changes8221; to the SEZ policy, should any faults be found. 8220;If we find flaws in our policy we can set in motion a mechanism to redress those gaps,8221; he said, adding that a 8220;more humane, effective and just policy8221; was being formulated to address the resettlement of land oustees. The government has also put the onus of rehabilitating those displaced on SEZ developers.

At the meeting on SEZs, Kamal Nath pressed for defreezing the notifications, saying the country8217;s credibility was at stake. His ministry estimates that if all 235 approved SEZs are notified, the country can attract investments to the tune of Rs 300,000 crore and generate four million jobs.

The EGoM is now scheduled to meet on April 11 morning to try and clear 60 SEZs whose notifications have been okayed by the Law Ministry. Before SEZ notifications were put into deep freeze on January 22, only 63 SEZs attracting investment of Rs 11194.2 crore with 15,097 jobs had been notified.

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Mukherjee is now expected to ask the Commerce Ministry to notify 60 more SEZ notifications screened by the Law Ministry. The EGoM may also take a decision not to invite more SEZ applications other than the 235 already approved, the 162 with in-principle approvals and 304 pending before the Board of Approvals headed by the Commerce Ministry.

Aware that nearly 70 per cent applications run into problems due to land acquisition, finances or joint ventures, the Government does not want to cap SEZs 8212; the idea is not to clear any SEZ which is stuck over land acquisition or is waiting for the state to acquire land.

Although Mukherjee had cited the violence in Nandigram and Singur to suspend SEZ notifications, there is growing realization within the UPA that the Nandigram firing had little to do with SEZs and was essentially a fallout of CPM politics in West Bengal.