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Gram sabha passes resolution against Special Economic Zone

Meena Menon

People register protest against land acquisition for Reliance Group's Mumbai SEZ

UP IN ARMS: Landless labourers protesting against the SEZ in Raigard district. - PHOTO: MEENA MENON

KALAMBUSRE (Raigad dist.): A historic event that took place in Kalambusre village in Uran taluka on August 15, 2006, went unnoticed. The gram sabha held on that day was attended by over a 100 people. "We even had a quorum which is unusual and we passed a resolution against the proposed Special Economic Zone (SEZ)," says sarpanch Anita Patil.

People came specially to register their protest against land acquisition for Reliance Group's Mumbai SEZ (MSEZ). "We don't want this SEZ because we heard that the government will give us very little money and there will be new zones created which will restrict our movements," says Ms. Patil. Like other farmers in this area, she points out that land is their only asset, therefore why should they give it up?

A taluka pramukh of the Shiv Sena's women's wing, Patil and others have staged protests and gheraoed the officials in Alibag, the district headquarters. Down the road in Khoproli, Santosh Pote and Chandrashekhar Thakur, both gram panchayat members say that the entire village has opposed the project and people had objected to the land acquisition notices already. "Our land is very costly, it is close to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) which offers high prices for our land to house their containers. Why should we allow our lands to be forcibly acquired when we have a choice of buyers," asks Mr. Pote.

People in this area have already had the bitter experience of giving up their land for Navi Mumbai or New Bombay, which was created to ease the congestion in Mumbai. In the 1970s, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) acquired land from 95 villages, displacing 30,000 families, to develop the new city. In return for giving up their land, CIDCO was supposed to develop 12.5 per cent of the land and give it back to the farmers. This has not happened. Apart from CIDCO, a number of other projects in the area have taken up agricultural land such as JNPT, ONGC, IPCL, industrial estates and chemical and gas companies.

Sanjay Thakur from Khopte village, a member of Mahamumbai Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti, a group of organisations fighting the SEZ, says the entire exercise is a real estate business. He points out that according to the SEZ Act, 2005, only 35 per cent of the land needs to be used for industries while the rest can be used for residential buildings. "Earlier the government used to acquire land for public projects, now it is acquiring land for capitalists," he remarks.

For farmers who have struggled to make something of their lives, the SEZ comes as a blow. Vishwanath Mhatre from Kelavane village, Panvel taluka, comes from a village that has agriculture, sand quarrying and fishing as major sources of livelihood. "I am the third educated person from my family and today I am a successful businessman with two trawlers. We don't need SEZs to develop," says Mhatre. People like him are still fighting for a share in CIDCO's development. "We have already had one bad experience giving up land for Navi Mumbai," he says. "I am educated till the third standard but I dream my daughter will become a collector. We just need proper electricity and water for two crops. Give us the concessions, not to Reliance," he adds.

However, a company spokesperson says that the projects are aimed at increasing the per capita income in the area, which is very low. It is a region marked by poor healthcare and infrastructure, he says.

Maharashtra was the first State to formulate a state level SEZ policy in 2001 and soon after that CIDCO proposed an SEZ spread over 3,800 hectares of land in Navi Mumbai region. Now named the Navi Mumbai SEZ (NMSEZ), it comprises Dronagiri, Kalamboli, Ulwe and a regional park zone. NMSEZ is conceived and developed as a futuristic business hub and global gateway for trade commerce, industry, service and tourism to India. It is also India's first SEZ in public private partnership, a joint venture with CIDCO, a Maharashtra government undertaking. A consortium led by SKIL Infrastructure Limited was awarded the global tender to develop operate and maintain the NMSEZ in alliance with Indian and global firms in September 2003.

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