SEZ: Unending saga

Editorial in today's oHeraldo
SEZ: Unending saga

It is the government’s continued inaction on the issue of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) that is responsible for incidents like the one on Tuesday, when activists of the SEZ Virodhi Manch (SVM) and the Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) barged into the site of the Raheja SEZ at Verna on learning that work had recommenced, forcibly stopped it, and caused the labourers at the site to flee. This would not at all have been necessary, had the government systematically probed into the SEZ mess and proceeded against the fraudsters.

In fact, it is the government’s reticence in the matter that has emboldened the Union Commerce Ministry, which seems to be unequivocally on the side of the SEZ promoters, to make outrageous and incorrect statements in the matter, and place unreasonable demands on the Goa government.

The fact is that all the SEZs have applied for land that is hugely over their real requirements. For example, why does a company that sets up its BPO units in one or two buildings in Mumbai, want 4 lakh square metres for similar units in Goa? Then, there are huge irregularities in the land allotments. These are well documented by the anti-SEZ activists through the Right to Information (RTI). They have been widely publicised through the media, both print and electronic, and never been adequately challenged, either by the SEZ promoters, the government or the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

Simply setting up an inquiry headed by a retired High Court judge into these irregularities would have given the government all the ammunition it needed to conclusively end the controversy and justifiably cancel the land allotment. But it has resolutely refused to do so.

Why? Is it because too many functionaries belonging to the ruling party would get implicated in the resulting scam? Is it because a number of those that were willing accomplices in this massive fraud continue to occupy very high positions?

Whatever the reason, the refusal of the government is very intriguing. To start with, though it asserts that SEZs will never be allowed, the government is yet to officially denotify its SEZ policy. After the SEZ promoters approached the High Court, it withdrew the ‘Stop Work’ order it had issued on 31 December. It simultaneously cancelled the land allotments. However, these were cancelled by the IDC, but this was on the basis that SEZs were ‘against’ government policy, not because of any irregularities in allotment. Considering that the official SEZ policy is still in force, this cancellation is unlikely to survive a court challenge, just like the earlier ‘Stop Work’ order.

In the meanwhile, the Union Commerce Ministry is keeping up the pressure. It first said it had no power to denotify the notified SEZs. This is bunk. A plain perusal of the General Clauses Act will show that the power to notify embodies the power to denotify, and all that is required is due process. It has recently changed tack to say the SEZs will not be denotified till the Goa government compensates the SEZ promoters. This arrogant and partisan behaviour needs to be tackled at the highest level, but our Chief Minister is keeping mum.

The government’s deliberate inaction is obvious, and isn’t going to fool the people. To avoid further law and order problems, the government needs to look into the land allotments, serve notice on the SEZ promoters, expose the irregularities, cancel the land allotments, and take back the land, legally. That’s the only way out of this mess.