Smile? Sure... Celebrate? Not Yet!!!

The growing public pressure has forced the Government to instruct the GIDC to revoke land allotment to seven SEZs, including three notified ones. It is necesarry to read the fine print before jumping the gun and celebrating. Nevertheless, we surely deserve to smile.

The credit for wahatever steps are being taken to uproot the scam of SEZs goes to first Franky Monteiro, Allan Faleiro and others who dug up the real fraud of approval of SEZ applications and land allotments. The brave proactive villagers of Keri, Verna, Loutolim, Sancoale, Betul and elsewhere showed exceptional determination and resolve to save their villages. The awakened Goans gave prompt solidarity to force the hand of the Government. The print as well as electronic media gave great support at all times.

BUT while we can smile, we need to hold on before we celebrate.

The Government must bring to book those guilty of the SEZ scams. No leniency must be permitted lest the SEZ developers find scope for intervening through the courts. Instead of entertartaining any compensation claims of the developers, the Govt must force the scamsters (both SEZ developers and those in the adminstration who facilitated the fraud) to compensate the affected villagers. And most importantly, since it is proved by the actions of the GIDC that it does not require land for industrial purposes, it must return the land back to the village. Lastly, the Industrial areas have to be brought back under the control of the panchayats which are now under scrutiny by the main stakeholders - the citizens of that village.

When all that happens, we can truly say
cheers
- Pravin

Check out http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080053086&ch=6/15/2008%209:03:00%20AM