NEW DELHI: Joining the debate on the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the country, the Left parties on Thursday asked the United Progressive Alliance Government to review the Act at the earliest and amend it in the light of suggestions including revising the processing and non-processing area criteria.

The parties said unless the changes including protection of worker's rights, appropriate cap on different classes of SEZs, regulation of land use within the area, and tax concessions were reviewed, the policy would ``degenerate into a free for all, which would have serious consequences.''

``Amendments to the SEZ Rules can be made consequent to the Amendment of the Act. The Board of Approval should stop granting fresh approvals until the completion of the review process,'' the parties said in a seven-page note submitted to the Government on Thursday.

Stating that since the drafting of SEZ rules and commencement of the process of granting approvals, a host of issues have surfaced including the concern that the Act would be misused for creating a ``speculative real estate bubble instead of building industrial infrastructure.''

The note said a major difference between the Indian SEZ policy and that of China, was on the question of land. In the Chinese case, the State acquired the land and developed the required infrastructure, where private enterprises were invited to set up units and the land continued to be owned by the State. In India, private entities were being involved in developing the infrastructure and land was being acquired by the State and handed over to private developers.

Land ownership

The parties suggested that there should be no land ownership to private developers, who should only be allowed to take land on lease or build the infrastructure on Build-Operate-Transfer; that Centre set an appropriate ceiling on the total land area under SEZ; build on non-agricultural land and discourage acquisition of agricultural land; ensure that in case farmers and other sections were displaced, their livelihood be secured; frame a model compensation and rehabilitation criteria; and address the issue of unblocking and recycling of land and others assets of closed industrial units under liquidation.

The note said there should be a cap on total number of SEZs irrespective of its class and size.

It pointed out that China has just six SEZs. It said that there should be separate caps for the total number of multi-product and sector specific SEZs.

On the criteria of processing/non-processing area, the parties said while at lest 50 per cent of the land area needs to be earmarked for developing processing area for sector-specific SEZs, the minimum processing area requirement for multi-prodcut SEZs was only 25 per cent. It said the processing area should not be less than 50 per cent and further 25 per cent of the non-processing area should be dedicated for infrastructure development. Building of residential and commercial complexes should be permitted over 25 per cent of the total land area.

Worker's rights

On worker's rights, the note said that the rules asking the State Governments to delegate powers under the Industrial Dispute Act to the Development Commissioner and to declare SEZs as public utility services were not compatible with the Act and suggested an International Labour Organisation recommendation of separation of powers of the Development Commissioner and Grievance Redressal Office be considered.

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