The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : TDP to launch stir against SEZs

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Tuesday, Jul 29, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

TDP to launch stir against SEZs

Correspondent

AMANGAL (Mahbubnagar dist.): Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu alleged that Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was turning the entire State into a special economic zone (SEZ) by selling lakhs of acres of land to industrialists and rich businessmen.

He told presspersons this afternoon that the Congress government was even acquiring assigned lands given to the landless poor in the past, on one pretext or the other and selling them at exorbitant rates. The TDP would soon launch an agitation on the land issue with specific reference to SEZs.

“My party will stand by the poor who have lost land”, he said.

With conditions

He claimed that as Chief Minister, he had never given land to big business houses without conditions like priority in employment to locals and added that Congress government’s priority was only ensuring the best price for the land acquired from the poor at the cheapest of rates. He also said he had acquired only government lands for Polepalli SEZ in this district without touching lands assigned to the poor and also private land.

The TDP president said he was not against economic reforms but said it should not make the rich, richer and the poor, poorer. The reforms should reach the downtrodden and reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, he added.

He disclosed that the party’s core committee on Telangana would meet on July 31 at Ieeja mandal headquarters in Gadwal Assembly constituency in the district. It would be the third such meeting of the committee.

BJP seeks details

Meanwhile, State BJP president Bandaru Dattatreya demanded that the government declare the number of SEZs functioning in the State and the total jobs generated by them.

He told a press conference here that 91 SEZs were sanctioned for the State, 54 of them were notified and 35 were formally approved. He stated that 29,125 acres was being acquired for SEZs and he wanted the government to involve farmers in the development of these zones as partners.

‘Biggest scandal’

Mr. Dattatreya accused the government of turning SEZs into a ‘real estate business’, terming it the “biggest scandal”. While 6,000 acres were acquired for the Kakinada SEZ, the notification was issued for only 2,590 acres. He demanded restoration of the remaining land to farmers.

The BJP leader, who earlier addressed the State-level Girijana Morcha meeting, charged the government with neglecting the welfare of STs.

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