No playing ball, please.

No playing ball, please. We have enough grounds to say so

- SEZwatch convenor, Albertina Almeida punctures Govt stance on SEZs

The below news item indicates a classic case of playing ball. The CentralGovernment can denotify the SEZs using the General Clauses Act and the Goa Government has to repeal its SEZ, IT, Biotechnology policies, register cases in regard to the SEZ related scams as the facts are well within theirknowledge. Period.

As far as the lease cancellation is concerned, the particular parties can continue to have the land if they put it to industrial purposes which is what GIDC had in the first place acquired the land for. If the parties don't want to put it to industrial purpose or the villagers of those villages want the land not to be put for industrialpurposes, then the land should be handed over to the appropriate authorityfor restoring it to the uses that the land was once put. But this is anissue entirely separate from the denotification as the land was anyway leased to these developers for SEZs even before the SEZs were applied for by them

THE NEWS ITEM:

Sun Jun 8 04:44:54 PDT 2008 Goa govt isn't closing down SEZs, says commerce secy8 Jun, 2008, 0206 hrs IST,Shantanu Nandan Sharma, TNNNEW DELHI: The Goa government, which mounted pressure on the Centre tocancel all Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the state, has not taken anyinitiative to close down those estates and compensate thedevelopers< http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Economy/Goa_govt_isnt_closing_down_SEZs_says_commerce_secy/articleshow/3110248.cms# >inthe last six months, commerce ministry officials said.Three developers of formally approved SEZs, who acquired 101 hectares ofland from government-owned Goa industrial development corporation (GIDC),are at a loss whether the stategovernment< http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Economy/Goa_govt_isnt_closing_down_SEZs_says_commerce_secy/articleshow/3110248.cms# >wouldtake back those land and suitably compensate them, sources toldSundayET.The ministry of commerce which cancelled four approved SEZs at the requestof the Goa government, has refused to cancel three notified SEZs as the SEZAct has no provisions to de-notify any SEZ. The ministry, however, did notprocess 12 otherapplications< http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Economy/Goa_govt_isnt_closing_down_SEZs_says_commerce_secy/articleshow/3110248.cms# >whichalso sought to develop SEZs in the state.When contacted, commerce secretary G K Pillai said: "During the last sixmonths or so, the Goa government has not taken any step to close down theSEZs. We are told that they have even asked for this year's lease rent ofland from some developers. As the state government has not done anypaperwork, some developers have recently received environmental clearance too," Mr Pillai said.The Goa government requested the Centre to scrap all SEZs in the state afterthe state had witnessed massive protests in December last year. Theprotestors were arguing that the SEZs would give an outlet for outsiders tograb land and reap financial benefits.Whereas Panchbhoomiinfrastructure< http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Economy/Goa_govt_isnt_closing_down_SEZs_says_commerce_secy/articleshow/3110248.cms# >,one of the four formally approved SEZs, purchased land from private owners,the other three — Paradigm logistics & distribution, Planetview mercantilecompany and Inox Mercantile company — were given land by the Goa industrialdevelopment corporation."Some of the developers acquired land from GIDC way back in 2001. These werelying vacant for years now, and it's a complete waste of resources. Thegovernment of Goa should close down the process and compensate themsuitably," the commerce secretary said