More of the SEZ mess in Goa

Unauthorised meet okayed land
13 Jun 2008, 0243 hrs IST, Preetu Nair,TNN

Not only did the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) act in haste to allot plots to the K Raheja Corp Pvt Ltd for an SEZ, but they increased the floor area ratio (FAR) on par with the IT habitat at Dona Paula and even sacrificed plans of setting up a government SEZ to allot 300 acres to Meditab Specialities Pvt Ltd. In addition, though the still 'under formation' Peninsula Research & Development Centre, Sancoale, had applied for Export Processing Zone status, SEZ status was conferred. The reason: the 'government feels it could be an SEZ'.
The list of irregularities goes on. Documents acquired by anti-SEZ activists under RTI reveal that allotment of land to Raheja's was done at the GIDC board meeting on April 19, 2006, attended by only four members— GIDC chairman Chandrakant Kavlekar, MLA Aleixo Sequeira, Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Nitin Kunkolienkar and Managing director A V Palekar. Other board members, including the director of industries were absent.
A possible explanation for their absence is that they received the notice of the meeting at the time when the meeting was already in progress. Three board members — secretary industries, director industries and chief electrical engineer—acknowledged receipt of the notice with signatures on April 19, 2006 at around 5 pm, an hour after the scheduled start of the meeting. Going by the industries and labour department regulations this meeting should not have taken place as there was no quorum. The regulations state: 'four members present will form a quorum provided that at least one of the members nominated under section 4 (1) (d) (in this case industries director) of the Goa, Daman and Diu Industrial Development Act, 1965, other than the chairman is present'.