The Hindu : Karnataka News : Scrap SEZ Act, demands Aruna Roy

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Monday, Aug 13, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Scrap SEZ Act, demands Aruna Roy

Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE: Any policy which affects a large number of people, is unacceptable to them and is detrimental to the sovereignty of the nation should not be pursued, Magsaysay award winner Aruna Roy has said.

The Special Economic Zone Act is one such policy which has to be set aside. Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan, Rajasthan would take this legislation to the people to elicit their opinion, she said.

Interacting with media persons here on Sunday, Ms. Roy said that the MKSS had organised Jan Adhikar Yatra from four places in Rajasthan – Ajmer, Tonk, Alwar and Seekar — which would culminate in Jaipur on August 21. The yatras were already underway.

The MKSS would strive to create public opinion about the SEZ policies of both the Central and Rajasthan governments through this campaign.

A series of public hearings would be conducted at the six-day ‘Jan Manch,’ which would get underway at Jaipur on August 21. The important issues that would feature at this public forum were a debate on the SEZ policies, a move by Rajasthan Government to demarcate 66-lakh hectares of cultivable public waste land for Jatropha cultivation and the move to amend the act permitting Dalits to sell the land allocated to them. Referring to the move to demarcate land for Jatropha cultivation, Ms. Roy said it had failed in many parts of the world.

This was nothing but a move to help realtors buy this land for a song. The Chief Secretary, divisional commissioners and district magistrates were empowered to acquire lands within the limits specified and allot them to private companies for development, she added.

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