With CMs writing in, Govt set to defreeze 50 SEZs where no land issues involved

With four Chief Ministers — cutting across party lines — writing letters to the Government underlining the need for Special Economic Zones in their states

With four Chief Ministers — cutting across party lines — writing letters to the Government underlining the need for Special Economic Zones in their states, the Centre has asked the Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Pranab Mukherjee, to consider lifting the January 22 freeze on SEZs that have no encumbrances on account of land acquisition or rehabilitation.

The latest to write to the Centre is Union Telecommunications Minister Dayanidhi Maran who has requested Mukherjee to convene an “urgent” meeting of the EGoM and allow “further processing of the SEZ proposals with in-principle land approval and land in possession.” Maran has urged Mukherjee to decide on the issue in order “to facilitate growth of the pivotal sectors of economy.”

Sources have told The Sunday Express that the EGoM, scheduled to meet on March 13-14, is expected to clear around 50 more SEZs whose draft notifications have been finalized in consultation with the Ministry of Law and Justice. To date, only 63 of the 236 approved SEZs have been notified.

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Prominent among these 50 SEZs, where land developers have submitted acquisition details and necessary inspections have been carried out by development commissioners, are: Infosys Technologies (IT SEZ) at Mysore in Karnataka; HCL Technologies Ltd (IT SEZ) at Bangalore in Karnataka; Bajaj Auto Limited (Automobile SEZ) at Aurangabad in Maharashtra; Brandix India Apparel City Pvt Ltd (Textile) at Visakhapatnam; Wipro SEZ (IT SEZ) at Noida in UP and Infosys Technologies (IT SEZ) at Pune in Maharashtra.

On the EGoM’s table are requests of four Chief Ministers, including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to lift the SEZ freeze. While Karnataka CM H D Kumaraswamy wrote to government on February 2, Modi followed it up with Kamal Nath on February 12 asking for an early decision. As first reported by the Express this week, Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi and Andhra CM

YSR Reddy wrote to Mukherjee on February 16 saying that the freeze was sending an unwelcome signal to investors.

Sources said the PM had a conversation with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on Thursday evening on the issue and this was followed by a discussion between Nath and Mukherjee.

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Even though an influential section within the Congress wants the freeze to continue until the UP elections are over, the government is faced with several requests to rethink. Other than the Chief Ministers, India Inc is also writing in. For example, on February 15, Malvinder Mohan Singh of Ranbaxy wrote to Mukherjee requesting defreeze of the SEZ notification as the company’s proposed SEZ at Mohali (annual export turnover $58 million and employment to 1400 persons) is stuck despite no issues of land acquisition or rehabilitation.

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