Om Prakash Chautala

NEW DELHI: The Indian National Lok Dal of Om Prakash Chautala on Wednesday urged the President to intervene and cancel the Haryana Government's move to hand over land to Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) for setting up a Special Economic Zone in the State.

Mr. Chautala said the party was opposed to the idea of transferring land acquired by the Government to private parties and said while farmers were being paid pittance for acquiring prime agricultural land, the private parties were free to commercially exploit it.

Asserting that the INLD was not against the creation of SEZs, he told correspondents later that, if the Congress-led Government has to follow the advice of its president Sonia Gandhi, then these SEZs could come up only in Chambal area of Madhya Pradesh since ``every inch of land in Haryana is fertile.''

In a memorandum, the party said the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) entered into an understanding with Reliance Industries and agreed to transfer 1,395 acres of land for setting up the SEZs.

He said the market value of the land being handed over on a platter to the RIL has risen manifold and the party wanted that the private developers should acquire the land directly and the task should not be done by the State.

He claimed that after the transfer, HSIDC conducted auction for a four-acre plot close to the proposed SEZ and realised Rs. 290 crore while RIL would pay HSIDC Rs. 290 crore for the 1,395 acres of land being transferred. ``When we calculate as per auction of HSIDC, the actual cost of the land handed over to RIL comes to approximately Rs. 72 crore per acre, roughly Rs. One Lakh crore in the market... we are ever more concerned that this has happened at the cost of the poor farmers of Haryana.'' Mr. Chautala said what was shocking was that the State Government proposed 37 SEZs, which have been cleared in the national capital region.

Mr. Chautala promised that the INLD would continue to raise the issue and resort to peaceful agitation against the move by the Haryana Government.

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