PROJECT REPORT BY ITM EEC BATCH-20 GROUP-6

PA N K A J T I WA RY
DEBANJAN ROY CHOWDHURY
AMIT MALHOTRA
HEMANTA SAHU

W H E R E I S TH E L AN D
G O ING ?
A STUDY ON LAND GRABBING WITH
REFERENCE TO RELIANCE MAHA MUMBAI
SEZ
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CONTENT

1. Objective of the Study ......................................... 3

2. What are SEZ’s? ................................................... 3

3. What Govt land reforms report says about SEZ 12

4. THE RELIANCE MMSEZ PROJECT........... 13

5. The History of the Resistance ............................ 15

6. Voices of the People and their Perspective ...... 18

7. Conclusion............................................................. 26

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 WHERE IS THE LAND GOING?

A S T U DY O N ‘ L A N D G R A B B IN G ’ W I T H R E F E R E N C E T O
R E L I A N C E M A H A M U M BA I S E Z
O B J E C T I V E O F T H E S T U DY

This project report is made as a part of curriculum for the subject “Introduction to Macro
Economics”. The topic was selected based on one of the contemporary allegation made on
SEZ concept that it is being exploited by private Entrepreneurs taking advantage of high
level of focus given by Govt. of India to it. The accusation made is “Land Grabbing” by
Entrepreneurs & Promoters for setting up SEZs. For this purpose a study was made by us
to find out why farmers are opposing the Reliance MMSEZ. A qualitative method was
adopted by collecting views from various discussion & blogs from internet (The condensed
form of the voices of farmers are recorded in this report). Besides this, the voice of villagers,
the views of activist of NAPM, Political Party workers, NGOs are also presented in this
project report.
To start with, a brief concept on SEZ, its objective and implementation is also presented
to have our basic understanding on it. The SEZ concept definitely a National Economy
driven project intended to generate employment and revenues for the country. The merits of
the SEZs are also enumerated in this report, for our academic interest. As every concept has
two facets, the bad part of it is the image of SEZ revolution in India is tarnished with land
grabbing allegation. There are many localized turmoil witnessed in various part of the
countries. We took up only one of it, Maha- Mumbai SEZ for our study purpose. We have
captured voices of local land owner and farmers unrest noticed in these areas along with
little theoretical analysis to support the fact observed.
Interestingly during the study, it was found that the SEZ growth is seeing an exponential
growth, where as during that period the fertile agricultural land growth is minimal.
Government has a callus attitude towards development of arid to fertile land where as the
availability of land is going off due to high demand from real estate property market and
over and above from high growth track of SEZ ( Refer table in Page 8) resulting in scarcity
of land. Besides this, there is resentment by the displaced citizens equivocating that the
rehabilitation scheme of the Government is meager and can not replenish their present
advantage.
All these issues have mooted this interesting topic, Does SEZ means “Special Exploitation
Zone?” or in simple words “Where Land is going?”

WHAT ARE SEZ’S?

Global Economy witnessed revolutionary metamorphosis during early twentieth Century started
with Communism fall down in erstwhile USSR and call for “Perestroika” or Reformation by Mr.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the then President - USSR .and immediately followed by unification of

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Germany. During that period, Capitalism gained momentum & US and its allies in Europe did their
best to push capitalist Economy. This led to outsource concept of Bulk Manufacturing and Services
to Developing nations to bring down overall production & services costs by utilizing abundant and
cheap labour available in those countries. China & India emerged as the first choice destination for
many obvious reasons. SEZ is one of the concepts evolved during that period.
India was one of the first in Asia to recognize the effectiveness of the Export Processing Zone
(EPZ) model in promoting exports, with Asia's first EPZ set up in Kandla in 1965. With a view to
overcome the shortcomings experienced on account of the multiplicity of controls and clearances;
absence of world-class infrastructure, and an unstable fiscal regime and with a view to attract larger
foreign investments in India, the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Policy was announced in April
2000.
This policy intended to make SEZs an engine for economic growth supported by quality
infrastructure complemented by an attractive fiscal package, both at the Centre and the State level,
with the minimum possible regulations. SEZs in India functioned from 1.11.2000 to 09.02.2006
under the provisions of the Foreign Trade Policy and fiscal incentives were made effective through
the provisions of relevant statutes.
To instill confidence in investors and signal the Government's commitment to a stable SEZ policy
regime and with a view to impart stability to the SEZ regime thereby generating greater economic
activity and employment through the establishment of SEZs, a comprehensive draft SEZ Bill
prepared after extensive discussions with the stakeholders. A number of meetings were held in
various parts of the country both by the Minister for Commerce and Industry as well as senior
officials for this purpose. The Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, was passed by Parliament in May,
2005 which received Presidential assent on the 23rd of June, 2005. The draft SEZ Rules were widely
discussed and put on the website of the Department of Commerce offering suggestions/comments.
Around 800 suggestions were received on the draft rules. After extensive consultations, the SEZ Act,
2005, supported by SEZ Rules, came into effect on 10th February, 2006, providing for drastic
simplification of procedures and for single window clearance on matters relating to central as well as
state governments. The main objectives of the SEZ Act are:
(a)generation of additional economic activity
(b) promotion of exports of goods and services;
(c) promotion of investment from domestic and foreign sources;
(d) creation of employment opportunities;
(e) development of infrastructure facilities;
It is expected that this will trigger a large flow of foreign and domestic investment in SEZs, in
infrastructure and productive capacity, leading to generation of additional economic activity and
creation of employment opportunities.
The SEZ Act 2005 envisages key role for the State Governments in Export Promotion and
creation of related infrastructure. A Single Window SEZ approval mechanism has been provided
through a 19 member inter-ministerial SEZ Board of Approval (BoA). The applications duly
recommended by the respective State Governments/UT Administration are considered by this BoA
periodically. All decisions of the Board of approvals are with consensus.
The SEZ Rules provide for different minimum land requirement for different class of SEZs.
Every SEZ is divided into a processing area where alone the SEZ units would come up and the non-
processing area where the supporting infrastructure is to be created.
The SEZ Rules provide for:
" Simplified procedures for development, operation, and maintenance of the Special Economic
Zones and for setting up units and conducting business in SEZs;

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Single window clearance for setting up of an SEZ;
Single window clearance for setting up a unit in a Special Economic Zone;
Single Window clearance on matters relating to Central as well as State Governments;
Simplified compliance procedures and documentation with an emphasis on self certification
Approval mechanism and Administrative set up of SEZs
a)Approval mechanism
The developer submits the proposal for establishment of SEZ to the concerned State
Government. The State Government has to forward the proposal with its recommendation within 45
days from the date of receipt of such proposal to the Board of Approval. The applicant also has the
option to submit the proposal directly to the Board of Approval.
The Board of Approval has been constituted by the Central Government in exercise of the
powers conferred under the SEZ Act. All the decisions are taken in the Board of Approval by
consensus. The Board of Approval has 19 Members. Its constitution is as follows:

(1) Secretary, Department of Commerce Chairman

(2) Member, CBEC Member
(3) Member, IT, CBDT Member
(4) Joint Secretary (Banking Division), Department of
Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance
(5) Joint Secretary (SEZ), Department of Commerce Member
(6) Joint Secretary, DIPP Member
(7) Joint Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology Member
(8) Joint Secretary, Ministry of Small Scale Industries and Member
Agro and Rural Industries
(9) Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs Member
(10) Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence Member
(11) Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests Member
(12) Joint Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice Member
(13) Joint Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs Member
(14) Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development Member
(15) A nominee of the State Government concerned Member
(16) Director General of Foreign Trade or his nominee Member
(17) Development Commissioner concerned Member
(18) A professor in the Indian Institute of Management or the Member
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
(19) Director or Deputy Sectary, Ministry of Commerce and Member Secretary
Industry, Department of Commerce

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(b ) Administrative set up
The functioning of the SEZs is governed by a three tier administrative set up. The Board of
Approval is the apex body and is headed by the Secretary, Department of Commerce. The
Approval Committee at the Zone level deals with approval of units in the SEZs and other related
issues. Each Zone is headed by a Development Commissioner, who is ex-officio chairperson of the
Approval Committee.
Once an SEZ has been approved by the Board of Approval and Central Government has notified
the area of the SEZ, units are allowed to be set up in the SEZ. All the proposals for setting up of
units in the SEZ are approved at the Zone level by the Approval Committee consisting of
Development Commissioner, Customs Authorities and representatives of State Government. All
post approval clearances including grant of importer-exporter code number, change in the name of
the company or implementing agency, broad banding diversification, etc. are given at the Zone level
by the Development Commissioner. The performances of the SEZ units are periodically monitored
by the Approval Committee and units are liable for penal action under the provision of Foreign
Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, in case of violation of the conditions of the approval.
Incentives and facilities offered to the SEZs
The incentives and facilities offered to the units in SEZs for attracting investments into the
SEZs, including foreign investment include:-
• Duty free import/domestic procurement of goods for development, operation and
maintenance of SEZ units
• 100% Income Tax exemption on export income for SEZ units under Section 10AA of the
Income Tax Act for first 5 years, 50% for next 5 years thereafter and 50% of the ploughed
back export profit for next 5 years.
• Exemption from minimum alternate tax under section 115JB of the Income Tax Act.
• External commercial borrowing by SEZ units upto US $ 500 million in a year without any
maturity restriction through recognized banking channels.
• Exemption from Central Sales Tax.
• Exemption from Service Tax.
• Single window clearance for Central and State level approvals.
• Exemption from State sales tax and other levies as extended by the respective State
Governments.
The major incentives and facilities available to SEZ developers include;
• Exemption from customs/excise duties for development of SEZs for authorized operations
approved by the BoA.
• Income Tax exemption on income derived from the business of development of the SEZ in
a block of 10 years in 15 years under Section 80-IAB of the Income Tax Act.
• Exemption from minimum alternate tax under Section 115 JB of the Income Tax Act.
• Exemption from dividend distribution tax under Section 115O of the Income Tax Act.
• Exemption from Central Sales Tax (CST).
• Exemption from Service Tax (Section 7, 26 and Second Schedule of the SEZ Act).

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SEZ Approval Status

Consequent upon the SEZ Rules coming into effect w.e.f. 10th February, 2006, Twenty-eight
meetings of the Board of Approvals have since been held. During these meetings, formal approval
has been granted to 531 SEZ proposals. There are 143 valid in-principle approvals. Out of the 531
formal approvals, 260 SEZs have been notified. Land requirements for approved Special Economic
Zones:

The total land requirement for the formal approvals granted till date is approximately 67680
hectares out of which about 109 approvals are for State Industrial Development Corporations/State
Government Ventures which account for over 20853 hectares. In these cases, the land already
available with the State Governments or SIDCs or with private companies has been utilized for
setting up SEZ. The land for the 270 notified SEZs where operations have since commenced
involved is approximately over 31405 hectares only.
Out of the total land area of 2973190 sq km in India, total agricultural land is of the order of
1620388 sq km (54.5%). It is interesting to note that out of this total land area, the land in
possession of the 270 SEZs notified amounts to approximately over 314 sq km only. The formal
approvals granted also works out to only around 676 sq km.
SEZs- Leading to the growth of labour intensive manufacturing industry:
Out of the 531 formal approvals given till date, 174 approvals are for sector specific and
multi product SEZs for manufacture of Textiles & Apparels, Leather Footwear, Automobile
components, Engineering etc.. which would involve labour intensive manufacturing. SEZs are
going to lead to creation of employment for large number of unemployed rural youth. Nokia and
Flextronics electronics hardware SEZs in Sriperumbudur are already providing employment to
14577 and 1058 persons. Hyderabad Gems SEZ for Jewellery manufacturing in Hyderabad has
already employed 2145 persons. majority of whom are from landless families, after providing
training to them. They have a projected direct employment for about 2267 persons. Apache SEZ
being set up in Andhra Pradesh will employ 20, 000 persons to manufacture 10,00,000 pairs of
shoes every month. Current employment in Apache SEZ is 5536 persons. Brandix Apparels, a Sri
Lankan FDI project would provide employment to 60,000 workers over a period of 3 years. Even
in the services sector, 12.5 million sq meters space is expected in the IT/ITES SEZs which as per
the NASSCOM standards translates into 12.5 lakh jobs. It is, therefore, expected that establishment
of SEZs would lead to fast growth of labour intensive manufacturing and services in the country.
Benefits derived from SEZs
Benefit derived from SEZs is evident from the investment, employment, exports and
infrastructural developments additionally generated. The benefits derived from multiplier effect of
the investments and additional economic activity in the SEZs and the employment generated thus
will far outweigh the tax exemptions and the losses on account of land acquisition. Stability in fiscal
concession is absolutely essential to ensure credibility of Government intensions.

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• Exports from the functioning SEZs during the last three years are as under:

Year Value (Rs. Crore) Growth Rate (overprevious year )

2003-2004 13,854 39%
2004-2005 18,314 32%
2005-2006 22 840 25%
2006-20007 34,615 52%
2007-2008 66,638 92%

(b) Investment and employment in the SEZs set up prior to the SEZ Act, 2005:
At present, 1943 units are in operation in the SEZs. In the SEZs established prior to the Act
coming into force, there are 1143 units providing direct employment to over 1.97 lakh persons;
about 37% of whom are women. Private investment by entrepreneurs in these SEZs established
prior to the SEZ Act is of the order of over Rs. 5626.24 crore.

(c) Investment and employment in the SEZs notified under the SEZ Act 2005:

Current investment and employment:

o Investment: Rs. 83450crore

o Employment: 1,13,426 persons
(Sources: Ministry of Commerce & Industries, Department of Commerce – Sunday,
20th December 2009)

From the above it does appears that the Indian political rulers have chosen to jump into setting up
of SEZs, primarily to grab huge tracts of properties and also to extend the tax holidays for industries
through the SEZ Act 2005.
This is liable to create one of the greatest land grabs in modern Indian history," says Sumit Sarkar,
an eminent historian and writer, who recently retired from Delhi University. "India has never before
witnessed the transfer of hundreds of thousands of hectares of agricultural land to private industry.
Nor probably has any other developing country."

To establish the SEZs, India's state governments are procuring farmland in coercive ways, at prices
well below the prevailing market rates, and handing it over to promoters - including big business
groups such as the Ambani brothers, the South Korean steel giant POSCO, the Tatas, Mahindras,
Unitech and Sahara. They stand to make huge super-profits.

The land procurement process is producing enormous resentment among farmers. Their land is
being acquired through special laws legislated for the express purpose of creating SEZs.

Farmers are agitating against SEZs in states as different as Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous

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province, and Himachal Pradesh, one of the smaller states. The anti-SEZ mobilisation acts across
different political parties, from the Hindu Right, which is in power in Gujarat, to the Left parties
which have ruled West Bengal for a quarter-century.

One of the fiercest battles is being fought over a proposed SEZ at Dadri in western Uttar Pradesh.
The agitation there is led by former prime minister and widely respected leader V.P. Singh. Arrayed
on the other side is the Samajwadi Party, one of the most vocal parties of India's rising middle castes,
along with the Anil Ambani group.

As the confrontation over SEZs builds up, industry groups are salivating at the prospect of windfall
gains. The SEZs will be considered "foreign territories" for the purpose of trade operations and
tariffs. Units located in SEZs can import goods without licence or duties. They can also freely
repatriate profits.
It is in this context that we must look to find out the reasons as to why, since the last many years
Raigad has become the battleground for the anti-displacement struggle? We can see that for the past
one and half years there has been several protests against Maha Mumbai SEZ led by people of
Raigad, in the 45 project affected village under the banner of MMSEZ Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti,
Jagtikikaran Virodhi Kruti Samiti, Peasanta and Workers Party, National Alliance for People’s
Movement, Left Progressive and Workers Union, Chaubis Gaon Sez Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti, Lok
Sashan Andolan, Panchkoshi Khar Bhumi Kheti Bachao Samiti and other concerned individuals
from all over Maharastra and the country.

SEZ – IS IT A CONSEQUENCES FOR GROWING AGRICULTURE & FOOD

INSECURITY

Land is first and foremost requirement for agriculture and food security. India has a burdening
population for which we have to have increasing agriculture land.
Around 160 years back political economist John Stuart Mill wrote, ‘Land differs from other
elements of production, labour and capital in not being susceptible to infinite increase. Its extent is
limited and the extent of the more productive kinds of it more limited still. It is also evident that the
quantity of produce capable of being raised on any given piece of land is not indefinite. These limited
quantities of land, and limited productiveness of it, are the real limits to the increase of production.’ -
never more do his words ring true than today in India.

With the pressure of billion-plus mouths to feed, and returns on agricultural inputs declining, it
would seem prudent to protect the area under agriculture, if not bring more area under cultivation.
However, what we are witnessing is the reverse. Faced with competing demands for land from the
non-agriculture sector and rapid urbanization, large chunks of prime agriculture land are being
diverted for non-agricultural purposes. This has serious implications for food security.

A little over 46 per cent of the country’s area is under agriculture. Between 1990 and 2003, the area
cultivated went down by around 1.5 per cent. While in percentage terms this may seem insignificant,
in absolute terms it translates to more than 21 lakh hectares. If this area was brought under wheat
(for the sake of argument), it would amount to a mind-boggling 57 lakh tonnes, which can feed more
than 4.3 crore hungry people every year. Had political will to prevent this diversion prevailed, the
number of hungry would have gone down substantially. On the other hand, between 1990 and 2004,
land under non-agricultural uses has gone up by 34 lakh hectares.

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All across the country, agriculture land is shrinking. In Kerala, the area under paddy is around 3.5
lakh hectares as against 10 lakh hectares in 1980. As a result the demand for rice is about five times
higher than what is produced by the state. Mineral-rich Orissa is losing agricultural land to mining
and power projects. Even in the case of a small state like Himachal Pradesh the net sown area has
declined by 33,000 hectares between 1991 and 2001.

In recent years this rate of diversion has gone up. For instance, across 25 mandals in and around
Hyderabad, 90,000 hectares of agriculture land has been diverted during the last five years. Real estate
major Emaar MGF owns over 4,000 hectares of agricultural land across the country while DLF
controls a land bank of around 3,500 hectares more. To sustain the high rate of economic growth,
major infrastructure development projects such as construction of new airports, roads, power
generation plants etc. are coming up. All this and more through large-scale diversion of fertile
agriculture land.

Diversion of agricultural land for industry is frequently justified by pointing towards cultivable
wasteland – around 132 lakh hectares – which can be developed and put under cultivation. However,
cultivable wastelands have also declined by over 18 lakh hectares between 1990 and 2004. Further,
even if these wastelands are developed and made cultivable to grow food, the productivity will
remain abysmally low for several years.

In addition to increasing production of food grains for ensuring food security, pulses and fats are
necessary for nutrition security. On the one hand, feeding half of the world’s hungry who live in
India will require at least 170 lakh hectares of additional land under cultivation. On the other, to
achieve self sufficiency in pulses and edible oils will require 200 lakh hectares more. Where will this
land come from? Forget agricultural land; there is not enough cultivable wasteland available to meet
this requirement.

The fact is that there simply is not enough land to go around. The statement of the Commerce
Ministry, ‘SEZs account for 0.000012 per cent of the country’s arable area’ therefore needs to be
viewed through this prism. When the ministry states that just over two lakh hectares of land will be
lost once the formally and informally approved SEZs come up, it ignores the fact that this can feed
over four million hungry every year in perpetuity. These numbers have gone up recently. Check the
Ministry of Commerce website for latest data. Further, the argument of the ministry that most land
under SEZs had already been acquired by state governments is indefensible because prior to its
acquisition, it would have been under cultivation.

Agriculturally rich states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh account for over 70 per cent
of the land that is earmarked for approved SEZs. Punjab and Haryana which meet a bulk of the
country’s foodgrain requirement are promoting SEZs on prime agricultural land. With the Ministry
of Commerce announcing on 3 December 2007 that the 5,000 hectare ceiling on multi-product SEZs
may be relaxed, it is music to the ears of big developers whose projects were stalled. Now with
acquisition of land left to the SEZ promoters, agricultural land is bound to come under increasing
pressure.

In addition to land, water is another resource that is limited in supply and increased competition for
its use between agriculture and the industry is jeopardizing food security. As it is, barely 40 per cent
of the cultivated area of the country is irrigated while the rest depends on unpredictable rains to
produce crops. This limited area however accounts for more than half of the total value of output of
Indian agriculture. Irrigation also has the potential to increase crop yield by 30 per cent and therefore
its importance for ensuring food security cannot be ignored.

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Between farming and industry, which sector will have a priority over the use of this scarce resource?
The SEZ Act of 2005 and SEZ Rules (2006) do not answer this question. Legislations at the state-
level are either silent on this issue or clearly allow SEZs to develop water supply and distribute to its
units. Given the present rules governing groundwater resources in the country, there is precious little
that a state can do to prevent SEZs from running the underground aquifers dry and leaving nothing
for surrounding farmlands.

Not only groundwater, even rivers and reservoirs meant for irrigation purposes are now being put at
the service of SEZs. Take for instance the Whitefield Paper Mills SEZ in Andhra Pradesh. Located
within five kilometres of the river Godavari, the state government has permitted the SEZ to draw
100 million litres of water per day. While the river at present has ample water, it is noteworthy that
more than half of the Godavari river basin is categorized as cultivable land and, naturally, any mass-
industrialization along this zone will reduce water availability for irrigation.

In Orissa, the allocation of water to industries from the Hirakud reservoir to industries has gone up
30 times over the 1997 levels. Notwithstanding protests by farmers against diversion of water meant
for irrigation, the state is going ahead with its plans to increase allocation for industries – many of
which are SEZs – like the Hindalco industries in Sambalpur district and Vedanta Industries Ltd. in
Jharsuguda. POSCO’s proposed SEZ in Jagatsinghpur has been allowed to directly draw water from
the river Mahanadi.

While industries are being given a priority over water rights by the Orissa government, Padampur
subdivision of Bargarh district of the state, which falls in the command area of Hirakud dam, has
remained permanently in the grip of continuous drought and agricultural failure since the 1960s. This
area has also earned the dubious distinction of being one of the poorest region of the world.
Obviously somebody has been busy stealing water meant for irrigating the crops of poor farmers.

There is more. The Mundra Port SEZ being developed by the Adani Group in the Gulf of Kutch,
Gujarat has managed to access six million litres per day of Narmada water for immediate use and
they expect the allotment to go up. SIPCOT SEZ in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu will receive water
from the SIPCOT water supply scheme. Government of Andhra Pradesh will install a pipeline
capable of carrying dedicated capacity of 20 million gallons of water per day for the FAB City SEZ
coming up near Hyderabad. The list is endless.

It is unfortunate that despite over 177 lakh hectares of barren and uncultivable land lying unused,
scarce resources like rich agricultural land and water are being poached upon to promote SEZs. To
feed a billion plus people, 350 million of whom are chronically food insecure, the government is
pushing for diversification away from food grains to produce non-food cash crops. The cash
generated through exports of these will be used to import food.

However, there are some who believe that there may be pitfalls with this approach. ‘It’s important
for our nation to be able to grow foodstuffs to feed our people. Can you imagine a country that was
unable to grow enough food to feed the people? It would be a nation that would be subject to
international pressure. It would be a nation at risk. And so when we’re talking about American
agriculture, we’re really talking about a national security issue.’ -This was President George W. Bush
addressing the National Future Farmers of America Organization on 27 July 2001. For once, Bush
does make sense.

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 PAGE 12 OF 28

WHAT GOVT LAND REFORMS REPORT SAY S ABOUT SEZ

Special Economic Zones are nothing but special exemption zones and there is no reason to exempt
these from all law. Hence, scrap these, is the recommendation of the Committee on Land Reforms
and Agrarian Relations set up by the Union government to advise it on issues ranging from land
reforms and land acquisition to measures to stop conversion of farm lands.

It says the SEZs should be scrapped in the interest of both ecology and food security. While the loss
of revenue in the form of taxes as well as its effect on agricultural production are not being studied,
the law is silent on the ecological and environmental concerns of areas these would apply to, the
committee says.

According to the SEZ Act, 2005, there is no upper limit for land acquisition by state governments. It
also allows acquisition of wasteland and single-crop land, putting negative impact on common
property resources like land, forest and water bodies. The committee cites the Raigarh SEZ which
Reliance wishes to develop in Maharashtra on 12,000 hectares of land cultivated by tribals for
decades.

It also questions the claims of investments for SEZs. It says the projected investment in 63 SEZs is
Rs 166,785 crore. It says Rs 67,500 crore is accounted for just by one 10 sq km multi-product SEZ in
Kakinada. Locationally, 92 per cent of this proposed investment is in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat
(46 per cent each). The proposed investment in units is therefore extremely skewed.

It also challenges the claim about the SEZs being a new avenue of job generation, saying the
information available about proposed direct employment for 110 SEZs is a total of 2.14 million. Of
this, 61 per cent is in the IT/ITeS sector, exceeding the entire current employment in that sector.
And, 85 per cent of this proposed employment is in just five states, with 40 per cent in Andhra
Pradesh alone.

The 200,00 hectares proposed to go for SEZs is, says the report, predominantly agricultural and
typically multi-cropped land, capable of producing close to one million tonnes of foodgrain. And,
that close to 114,000 farming households (each household comprising five members) and an
additional 82,000 farm-worker families will be displaced. That means a million people face eviction.

Almost 80 per cent of the agricultural population owns only about 17 per cent of the total agriculture
land, making them near-landless farmers. Far more families and communities depend on a piece of
land (for work, grazing) than those who simply own it, it notes. It also questioned the procedure to
value the land taken over. It further points out that it is not bound by environmental laws and the
EIA notification, 2006, issued by the ministry of environment, leaves out SEZs.

Moreover, the SEZ developer and units would also be exempted from taxes levied by the local
bodies. It further says the SEZ Act of various states gives a blank cheque to the water requirement
for the zones. For example, the Gujarat Act says, “The SEZ developers will be granted approval for
development of water supply and distribution system to ensure the provision of adequate water
supply for SEZ units.” It has given examples of the diversion proposed from hydro projects for
SEZs, and for other major industrial projects coming up on acquired land, such as Posco mammoth
steel project in Orissa — the daily water requirement, it says, is 286 million litres per day, to be
procured from the Jobra barrage on the Mahanadi, from the upstream Hirakud dam. There is already
an agitation against reservation of water from the Hirakud dam for industrial purposes, the report
notes.

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Tata Steel says report not being factual. Tata Steel, which has been named by the land reforms
committee in the context of land acquisition against the wishes of people, has complained to the
ministry of rural development that the report has levelled false accusations against the company.

“The report accuses us of being the supporter and the first financier of Salwa Judum, the so-called
anti-Naxalite movement of the people of the area. We would like to clarify here that the Salwa Judum
movement was already operational before we signed an MOU with the State government for setting
up the steel plant in the region. We emphatically declare that we have never supported or financed
Salwa Judum or any such organization. We are not connected with them in any way.’’

“For the displaced families of Kalinganagar (Orissa), we have gone beyond the stipulations of R&R
policy to give long-term assurance for better quality of life and this has led to the formation of
concept of ‘Tata Steel Parivar’ - Tata Steel’s own R&R programme. We are proud to say that we are
the only company to have implemented such a benevolent initiative for the rehabilitation of the
displaced villagers. This unique initiative, apart from ensuring improvement in quality of life, is also
giving importance to the cultural and emotional requirements of the displaced tribals. Till date, nearly
900 families have been rehabilitated and their progress is monitored closely. We shall be
implementing Tata Steel Parivar at other greenfield projects of Chattisgarh & Jharkhand,’’ says the
rejoinder.

THE RELIANCE MMSEZ PROJECT

In this section, we studied the Reliance MMSEZ Project and land issues connected with it.

The project ‘Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone’ (MMSEZ) is proposed to be setup in Navi
Mumbai area, as an international standard business centre. The Reliance Company is to acquire about
10,000 ha of land for the MMSEZ in three phases, over a period of ten years, affecting directly 45
villages (in Uran and Pen Tehsils of Raigad district of Maharashtra), approximately about 15000
households and 1,00,000 persons.

MMSEZ would involve development of various infrastructures ranging from roads, power and water
distribution networks, Industrial & commercial parks, social leisure and recreational facilities, etc.
Out of the total about 10,000 ha of required lands, the project would need approximately 2126 ha of
the land along the Karanja Creek, adjoining Dronagiri Node, in Navi Mumbai. The project is to
affect about 45 villages and the number of people likely to be physically displaced from their houses
(as their gaothan/settlement sites fall within the proposed project area) is about 1,00,000. The
location of MMSEZ is approximately 6 to 8 kms from the Dronagiri Node of Navi Mumbai and
about 40 kms from South Mumbai. It falls within Uran and Pen Talukas of Raigad district of
Maharashtra.

A majority of the villagers are fully aware about the nature and character of the proposed project and
many (including the Panchayat Members) have already written and submitted various memorandums
to the government and political leaders opposing the forthcoming project at all. Except 500 acres all
Further Acquisition of land has been stalled due to people’s fierce resistance. There are only handfuls
among the affected people who are willing to negotiate and sell their land.

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 PAGE 14 OF 28

SOCIO ECONOMIC PROFILE OF THE AREA AND AFFECTED

VILLAGES:

These villages are dominated by the Agri Community (classified as the OBCs). However,
some of these villages have other castes such as Koproli, Punade, Jui, Sarde, and
Sangpalekhar, also have Koli and Katkari tribe population and few Scheduled Castes (SCs)
population. There are people in these villages belonging to some indigenous tribal
communities like the Katkari and Koli. These communities generally do not own any land. They are
dependent for their livelihoods on the Sea or the forest in that area. They catch fish from the sea or
collect forest produce like fuel-wood, wildfruits, honey, medicinal plants, 4 etc., and generally
exchange/barter with villagers these things for food grains. Upsetting the existing socio-economic
milieu in the area/village would also affect these indigenous communities adversely.

Almost all major villages are presently connected with pucca road and telephone facilities, and all the
villages have electric supply. Most villages, primary and secondary schools. For higher education
villagers are dependent on nearby towns Funde, Uran, Panvel, and Pen. Due to availability of
schooling facilities, literacy rate in these villages is higher than the average literacy rate for the state
(Maharashtra), and most of the youth are educated upto secondary and higher secondary levels.
However, due to lack of technical education facilities, their skill levels are of general nature, which
may not be very suitable for jobs in the Project. Most villages have health care sub-centres and
almost all the villages have private doctors but they, in general, are quacks with the primary health
centre at the Taluka head quarters. Except the villages immediately on the sea shore, all villages are
connected with piped water supply. Ponds are generally used for fishing and washing of cloth or for
other religious rituals.

As a part of rich community life, almost all the villages have Mahila Mandals, youth clubs, and Natya
Mandals. However, scope of activities of Mahila Mandals and youth clubs are limited only to
organizing a few religious festivals or games. In a few villages Mahila Mandals own tempo, auto-
rickshaw, and utensils which they let out to the villagers for some income.

There are many real-estate touts and agents operating in the area, and most of them are buying land
with the hope of selling it back to the Project at higher rates. Other than that, Reliance has been
recruiting some people to work as promoters in convincing people to sell their land, it has also been
using muscle power and extra constitutional means such as filing of false registry cases to forcibly
evict the people from their land holdings. The large number of sharecroppers and landless peasantry,
fisherfolk will naturally exclude a large number of the affected people from any form of
compensation or traditional rights to their traditional livelihood. Those above 40 years, especially the
women, will be most vulnerable due to the loss of their traditional occupation. These are the people
who generally carry out traditional occupations and may face problems in learning and adopting new
occupations in the changed scenario.

The villages and surrounding townships are reasonably well developed with wide and diversified self-
employment opportunities. Many of the self-employed already have easy term credit facilities for
poultry farm, dairy development, horticulture, transportation, communication, food and beverages,
machine-works and repairs, computer typing, photocopying, etc. There are a large number of families
in these villages who are involved in fishing and sand raising from the sea. Despite salinity and lack
of development of irrigation, agriculture is an economic and profitable occupation in the area. These
villages, supply fish to Mumbai and other nearby towns, other than export of several exotic varieties.
The average earning from fishing ranges from Rs.300-400 per person per day. Where fishing in the
area is generally done for self consumption, sand raising brings some cash to the families. On an

14
average, the per capita earning from sand raising ranges between Rs.150 to 200 per day. The villagers
are, afraid that even if the project comes and development of the area takes place, they may be
bypassed of the benefits of the development because of the lack of technical knowledge and the
PAPs which the newly emerging economy would need. That is why they refuse the demand for
compensation for land and other assets, and are skeptical that any permanent employment will be
provided to the PAPs. Therefore, they know that since training for the new kind of jobs has not been
started they will be disqualified for the jobs on the basis of lacked skills.

The area already has a high potential for enhancing people’s livelihoods and income, as it is located
on the periphery of Navi Mumbai and the JNPT. But despite many industrial and commercial
establishments which have come up over the years, no real advantage has percolated to the people in
the surrounding vicinity. These areas have the sea, a high density of ponds, good agricultural land and
mangrove forests for fuel wood all of which weigh the argument in favour of the general mood of
the people to resist.
T H E H I S T O RY O F T H E R E S I S TA N C E

Raigad in Maharashtra is probably one of the few districts in India that is being flooded by
companies for setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). In Raigad district itself about eleven
SEZ projects have been proposed, spread over almost 50,000 acres of land. This has been without
taking into account that most of this land is being used by local communities for farming, salt
production, grazing and many other purposes. Villages in the Pen and Uran Taluka have been
opposing this project since last year, when the land acquisition notices were served. Reliance
Industries Limited (RIL) was proposing to acquire about 14,000 hectares of land for the project.
Most of this land is currently under agriculture or other uses by residents, mostly belonging to the
Agri and Katkari tribes and Koli community. While the government's estimate of directly affected
persons is 50,000 farmers, one can surely estimate that at least more than 4 lakh people will be
directly or indirectly affected. We can trace the history of the movement through this summary of
events that have taken place since the time the affected villagers came to know about the proposed
MMSEZ.

People have organised themselves in the 45 project affected village under various banners such as
MMSEZ Virodhi Sangarsh Samiti , Jagtikikaran Virodhi Kruti Samit, Peasants and Workers
Party, National Alliance for People’s Movement, Left Progressive and Workers Unions,
Chaubis Gaon Sez Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti,, Lok Sashan Andolan, Panchkosi Khar Bhumi
Kheti Bachao Samiti with support from other concerned individuals from all over Maharashtra and
the country.

According to Vilas Sonewane: After hearing about the propsed MMSEZ the Lok Sashan Andolan
with Justice Sawant and various revolutionary left parties activists went and conducted meetings in
the entire 45 vilages of Uran, Pen and Panvel Taluka. Seeing the anger and resentment of the people
against the proposed MMSEZ these groups decided to organize under the banner of the Maha
Mumbai SEZ Virodhi Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti.

Kiran Mhatre (Malegarhvadi) used to run self help groups in 12 villages, when they first heard
about the MMSEZ, on Feb 20, 2006 they held a meeting in one of the villages. Three hundred
people gathered and formed Panchkosi Khar Bhumi Kheti Bachao Samiti. They had an all party
meeting on April 15, 2006 where Mohan Patil of Peasants and Workers Party gave his support to
the struggle and they decided to oppose the MMSEZ. A memorandum was prepared and presented
to the Collector and Thesildar. The Peasants and Workers Party fought the Zilla Parishad elections in

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2006 and won 42 out of the 61 seats, Nilima Patil was elected as the Chairperson of the Zilla
Parishad. After elections the ZP passed a resolution totally opposing the MMSEZ. Some NGOs also
participated in the struggle against the MMSEZ.

On 23rd March 2006 in a rasta roko at Raigad the leader of the Peasants Workers' Party and
Jagtikikaran Virodhi Kruti Samiti was promised that the matter would be discussed at the Cabinet
Meeting. On 9th June 2006 the Maharastra government issued section 4 (1) land acquisition notices
to farmers of 45 villages of Pen, Uran and Penvel taluks of Raigad district government was supposed
to issue the next notice within a year otherwise notice period will lapse, but government could not
issue notices within that time. This year government issued notification on 19th, i.e., offer the period
of one year was over it seems that 'government is playing a game against the farmers,' the farmers
said.

The Maha Mumbai SEZ Virodhi Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti burnt the land acquisition
notification on 21st June 2007, in front of the Special Land Acquisition Office at Pen in Raigad
district. Approximately one thousand farmers participated in the agitation. The protest programme
was supported by Peasants and Workers Party, Anti Special Economic Zone Committee of 24
Villages, Anti- Globalisation Forum, Maharashtra and other people's organisations. They expressed
their strong opposition and feelings during this agitation. Aim of this agitation was to reject and
express disapproval of government resolution, to make an appeal to the state government for
stopping land acquisition process at the earliest. it also appealed farmers to strengthen local struggle
non-violently. The protesters submitted their demands to government officer during the programme.

On July 21st 2006 PKBKBS held a rally in front of the Pen Thesil and submitted a memorandum to
the Thesildar, meanwhile objections were collected under Sec 4 of the Land Acquisition Act from
each household and given to the Tehsildar, Pen. From August 10 to 15 2006 Sarvahara Jan ndolan
held street plays in the Panchkosi and Pen areas creating awareness about the MMSEZ.

On September 21, 2006, Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) went for a rally in Belapur (Navi Mumbai) where
around 50,000 people gathered. Yechury gave an assurance that they would oppose the MMSEZ
tooth and nail and if necessary also withdraw support from the UPA government. Jayant Patil and
Vivek Patil also spoke at the rally.

On October 6, 2006, activists from the Peasants and Workers Party spoke in the rally against the
MMSEZ.

Later in October, 2006 NAPM activists and Medha Patkar also toured the area and held a rally in
front of the Pune Collector’s office. Leaders from Peasants and Workers Party, CPI(M) also spoke at
the rally.

On November 22nd 2006 a day long dharna was held at Jantar Mantar by the All India Kisan Sabha
on the Raigarh issue. They went in delegations to meet Somnath Chatterjee and Sitaram Yechury to
discuss the MMSEZ issue.

On December 2006 two thousand people came to Delhi and had a dharna at Jantar Mantar and also
met the left party leaders.

On 12th, December in Nagpur a people's delegation representing the Jagtikarn Virodhi Kruti Samiti
met to Mr.Vilasrao Deshmukh-Chief Minister and Mr. Patangrao Kadam-Rehabilitatin Minister
during the Winter Session of the Assembly and they had promised that irrigated and agricultural
lands will not be acquired for the SEZ projects, government will not acquire lands for the companies
and will stop the land acquisition process immediately. Despite that announcement no actions were

16
taken to withdraw the project or acquisition notices. Subsequently the 24 Village SEZ Virodhi
Sangarsh Samiti organised a relay hunger strike from February 14, to March 5th 2007 at the Pen
tahsil headquarters.

On Jan 3, 2007, under the leadership of Prof. N.D.Patil (Gen Secy. of the Peasants and Workers
Party) a jail bharo andolan was launched at Pen and around 2000 people courted arrest.

From February 5 to March 2007 there was a relay hunger strike in front of the Thesil office at
Pen. During the hunger strike the local Cong (I) MLA celebrated the birthday of A.R.Antulay, (Ex
CM of Maharashtra) with crores of rupees. Antulay flew in from Delhi only to celebrate his birthday
and this really angered the people on March 22nd night huge posters of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and
Stalin were put up by the Maha Mumbai Sez Virodhi Sangram Samiti all over the Pen Thesil
challenging the government and Reliance. The police tore down most of the posters. On March 23rd
2007, the day of Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom a massive road block was organised at Valkhal on the
NH 17 (Mumbai – Goa) around 10,000 people were present. During this road blockade the budget
session of the assembly was on and Jayant Patil (MLA P& WP) raised the issue about the MMSEZ.
The CM assured the assembly that the land will not be forcibly acquired from the farmers. This
boosted the morale of the movement and on March 30th a massive gherao of the Distt Collectorate
took place at Alibagh.

On April 5th 2007 at the call of Anti Globalisation Front a massive rally was organised in Azad
Maidan, Mumbai. About 50,000 people came for the rally.

During this period the Select Committee of the Parliament on SEZs, Chairman Kashi Ram
Rana came to visit Raigarh SEZ area. But instead of meeting the affected people, at the MIDC office
he met the Reliance officials and the Maharashtra bureaucracy. Outside the MIDC office more than
1000 farmers were waiting to meet him but he refused. This angered the people and they forced their
way inside. In the tussle the police framed criminal charges and arrested 5 people. When Kashi Ram
Rana insisted on visiting the SEZ area, the government instead of taking him to the SEZ area, took
him to a non SEZ village, Khalapur in Raigarh. This really angered the people and they gheraoed the
panchayat samiti office where he was having the meeting and so he was forced to meet Porf.
N.D.Patil and other activists. They submitted their written objections to the MMSEZ to Kashi Ram
Rana and in their memorandum they wrote that they want the entire project to be completely
scrapped.

On May 3rd 2007 the CM had given a written appointment to Prof. N.D.Patil and other activists, but
when they went to the secretariat he refused to meet them. Then the government issued the Sec 6 of
The Land Acquisition Act, despite earlier assurances that no land will be forcibly acquired. This
created large scale resentment in the affected villages.

On Jun 15th 2007 Chaubis Gaon Sez Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti took a decision to create a mass
awareness on this issue. On June 20th more than 3000 people sat in silent protest in front of the
Land Acquisition Office. Since the admionstration did not respond to this dharna, in the evening the
activists met again and decided to have a rally the next day itself. On 21st June more than 10,000
people gathered in front of Pen Anti-land acquisition office and the Anti-SEZ committee burnt the
land acquisition notification. The protest was organized under the leadership of Mr. N.D Patil, Mr.
Mohan Patil, Mr. Manav Kamble, Ms. Ulka Mahajan, Ms. Vaishali Patil, Ms. Surekha Dalvi, Mr.
Ganesh Thakur, Mr. Dhariyasheel Patil and local anti land acquisition committee members.

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On July 2nd 2007 the Chaubis Gaon Sez Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti activists met and decided to
have a fast unto death for withdrawal of the Sec 6 notice. They conducted meetings in the villages for
names of people who would sit on the fast. 17 people sat on the hunger strike from July 17 to 24th,
2007 in front of the Thesil office at Pen. Their demands were that the land acquisition notices served
in the case of the Maha Mumbai case be immediately withdrawn and 22 villages of the Pen region
falling in the Hetavne Kal Prakalp Pariyojana be given irrigation schemes from the Hetavne dam as
promised to them to improve the agriculture economy. The SEZ Act 2005 has to be scrapped to
protect the interests of farmers and poor people losing their resources at the hands of the elites. Up
to the five days government had not paid attention towards the people then collector of Raigad
visited to the people and asked to stop the strike. During her visit she promised that their demands
will be conveyed to the government. On 23rd July More than four thousand people and their
organizations did a huge protest at Aazad Maidan in Mumbai. They pressurized and negotiated with
government on the issues of withdrawal of 22 villages from Maha Mumbai SEZ. Eventually on 24th
July Mr. R.R. Patil and Mr. Patangrao Kadam gave promises to exclude these villages, then protesters
stopped indefinite hunger strike on 24th evening.

Meanwhile on July 27th 2007 at the call of Maha Mumbai SEZ Virodhi Shetkari Sangharsh
Samiti organised a massive rally at Konkan Bhawan, Navi Mumbai. Around 40,000 angry
farmers participated despite heavy rains.

VO I C E S O F T H E P E O P L E A N D T H E I R P E R S P E C T I V E

The following voices from the public in the region of Navi Mumbai and neighbourhood villages
were captured below to give a feel on the issues of land acquisition which is being termed as “Land
Grabbing” by the common men.The opinions as depicted below are true, and has been extracted
from blogs and survey results published in the website by Mr Asit after he conducted it.

Interviews in Pen Taluka

Narwelbedi vill (pop 3000)
Ravinder Tukaram Patil an agricultural labourer, does not believe in the government promises for
rehabilitation, he makes enough from his land and fishing and he is contented with what he has.
Benavili vill (pop 800)
Dr. Ashirwad Mukul, he is a practicing doctor in the village and he makes roughly Rs.2000 per day,
the SEZ will completely distort the local culture and no one will get employment because the people
are not trained enough to get jobs in high tech industry – whereas the village is fairly self sufficient.
Group meeting on Aug 7, 2006 of almost 65 persons; the basic points discussed were that they felt
none of them had any stake in the SEZ since none of them have any technical qualification to do any
permanent job, most of us are sharecroppers, artisans and fisherfolk, so they are also outside the
scope for any compensation. This is a big insecurity for them and neither has Ambani nor the
government given any assurance on this matter. They are also worried about the fact that if they are
forcibly evicted where will go, and how they will be resettled. They have seen what happened to
those from the neighbouring 95 villages for creation of Navi Mumbai; people could not handle the
compensation money and more than 95% of these farmers are homeless and stay in slums, while all
the flats and apartments are owned by others. There is also no regular employment. Most of the
evictees are street vendors. According to the group they are almost self sufficient because of the
fishing and rice cultivation and mangrove forests, they do not want to undergo the same travails as
those from Navi Mumbai.
Kalsre vill (pop 2000)
Suryakant is a farmer and he owns one and a half acre of land. He says that the Reliance company
trapped him and took about ¾ acre of land while paying him only three lakhs. Much later he learnt

18
that that after that particular land which he sold is developed, it will sell for even up to Rs. 4 crore
per acre.
Desh Mhatre owns six acres of land and he is not willing to give up the land or take cash
compensation. He is willing to resist to the end. He mentioned that till August, 2007 about 38
agitation programmers have been done against the SEZ.
Vashi vill (pop 5000)
Almost 92% are farmers. Agri (OBC) 90% and Kohli (10%) it has two rice mills which employ about 400 regular
workers and about 500 bullock carts who take the rice to the mill every. Most of the rice is grown locally. It has a
goldsmith, barbers, blacksmith, 12 tailor shops, 20 shops, 8 family of butchers, 167 fishing ponds of which 16 are
large ponds. Local transport: there are 7 six seater tempos. Around 40 people work in the salt pan.
Prakash Mhatre is a farmer; according to him, the government did not inform or consult with the
Gram Panchayat before signing the MOU for the MMSEZ. When the villagers got to know about
the MOU they went to the gram sabha and convened a corum of the villagers and the Gram Sabha
even passed a formal resolution rejecting the SEZ. When this resolution was taken to the Collector,
he/she refused to acknowledge the resolution. Till date no formal notice as per the Land Acquisition
Act has been served before that Gram Panchayat.
Ashok Viraj Madhukar: We are totally self sufficient and this project is anti national which will
drive them into destitution and unemployment. The government has not given them any concrete
rehabilitation plans.
Burze (pop 2000)
100% are land owners and 90% literate people involved in fishing 25% earning about Rs. 300 per day and 10% in
salt pan Industry earning a minimum of Rs.125 per day, there are about 100 government servants of which 50 are
teachers and 35 are in the police.
Gyandev Mhatre is a teacher and his claim is that since SEZ’s are high tech industries there will be
no employment for the villagers, ironically there is also a dam coming up called Hetwane which will
irrigate 24 villages which are going in to the MMSEZ. He opposes cash compensation because it will
have a very bad impact on the youth since he has seen the adverse effects where young people have
wasted all their compensation money on dance bars etc. According to him only the Mumbai elites
and the politicians will benefit from this SEZ. His village produces vegetables, milk, poultry and the
Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and the Nippon Steel Co. is within 10 km. Both these provide a good
market for the village produce whereas neither have been important sources of employment for the
villagers.

The Nippon Steel Factory has 2000 regular workers but not even 10% are local people. The Johnson
Tiles factory has 500 workers but less than 10% from the local area. The remaining people employed
are causal unskilled labor. The Rashtriya Chemical Fertilizers factory at Alibaugh has 7000 employees
but virtually no employment for the local people.
Vadav vill (pop 1200)
It has 20 grocery shops, one restaurant, one medical shop and around 60 six seater tempos.
Balaji Hiravan Mhatre goes for fishing, he owns one small boat and goes fishing earning Rs 500
per day. Prawns fetch international prices Rs 200 to 300 while the local price is Rs 150, he is afraid
that if the SEZ comes up they will lose their livelihood. In the same village Jayant Mhatre owns 3
boats employs 4 people while each takes a share of Rs 400 per day.
Malegarhwadi is a hamlet and Bharat Mhatre is a tailor and he opposes the SEZ. Parvin Mhatre
owns a six seater tempo and supports 8 people in the family, earning about Rs. 250 per day. He also
opposes the SEZ.
Rajan Jhemse is one of the main activists in the village and he filed a RTI and managed to get the
information that this area has been shown as non-irrigated area while in actual fact the entire 24
villages of Pen Taluka comes under the Hetwane command area. But the Block Agriculture Officer
and the Patwari have filed false reports with the government stating that the land is infertile and non

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irrigated. In fact the Hetwane dam Authorities had objected to the District Collector that this area
comes under the command area of the dam and should not be acquired for industrial or commercial
purposes. Also this area has been declared as a “Green Area” of the Western Ghats, by the
Maharastra government and therefore should be excluded from industrial development. Most of the
affected villages in Uran and Pen Taluka are near the sea shore and also come under the Costal
Regulatory Zone. He also opposes the SEZ and feels that if the villages are uprooted they will loose
his livelihood and social network. He is also very angry with the SEZ project and he insists that
guns cannot stop the agitation and he is willing to give up his life for this cause. He has been to jail
and has also protested in Delhi, he has met Somnath Chatterjee, Sitaram Yechury and twice he has
met Vilas Rao Deshmukh. However, according to him all these leaders do a lot of double talk
causing him to loose faith in the established political parties and in turn rest his trust only on people’s
resistance which can be the sole means of stopping the SEZ. Kasu Tai she has gone to all the anti
SEZ rallies and has also been arrested in September 2006. She knows that it is the women and
children who face the harsh brunt of forced displacement. She feels that land provides a livelihood
for generations while cash is easily frittered away in a short period. She is also determined to fight
against the SEZ to the bitter end.
Vasant Thakur owns 50 acres and most of his land has been given to sharecroppers, which is also
the case with most landowners. Almost all Sharecroppers are semi literate- their only livelihood is
through sharecropping and once the SEZ comes there is no possibility of getting any employment
and since they are not landowners they will also not get any compensation loosing both ways.
Lakole village (pop 1000)
Around 400 house holds own agriculture land around within 150 hectares of total land.
Tura Mhatre owns 2 acres but supports 11 members of his family from this land and additional
income comes from fishing which also provides fish for his home and surplus for cash. He opposes
this SEZ because he knows that there is no alternative which can provide him such a secure means
of livelihood such as land and fishing.
Bhal village (pop 1600)
Almost everyone in the village is a farmer with fishing as a secondary occupation. The village has 10 shops.
Arun Mhatre he has one acre of land and also does fishing. He maintains a 6 member family and
does not want to give up his land, neither does he want to be employed in the SEZ. He is an active
member in the movement and has also been jailed several times in the movement.
Bitthalvadi, is a hamlet of Bhal. Prabhakar Mhatre owns only half acre of land but goes for fishing
and earns up to Rs.500 per day and he says he is very comfortable with that. The amount of rice he
gets from his half acre land, sees him through 8 months. There is also a lot of mangrove forest which
also provides them fuel wood, so his need to buy things from the market are very limited. Once he is
uprooted he will be completely dependent on the market, but with no secure means of livelihood.
Kanoba village (pop 700)
Tulsidas Mhatre he owns only half acre land but that gives him 10 qt of rice and he is also a share
cropper just as half the other villagers. He earns extra cash from fishing and he has courted arrest
several times and is an active member in the anti SEZ movement.

Vadav Village (pop 5000)

Savitri Mhatre works as a farm labourer and share cropper. Even though she is landless, but as a
share cropper she has a high stake in the village community. She also does occasional fishing (fifty
percent of the villagers are involved in fishing) and she has attended all the protest programmers and
is willing to give a tough fight even willing to die. She went for the gherao of the tehsildar at Pen on
21st where around 6000 thousand people were there they were arrested and sent to jail for ten days a
year ago police was sent to every village to terrorize but they weren’t cowed down.
Chandrahas Mhatre owns half an acre of land six members in family with one brother working as a
government servant. His mother goes for fishing and he came to know about the SEZ when Justice
Sawant and Vilas Sonwane came to the village and held a meeting explaining the proposed SEZ.

20
A group meeting of about fifteen men and women discussed various issues such as the experiences
of those who were compensated for the CIDCO acquisition and how all their money was wasted in
useless expenditure. They also talked about the agents employed by Reliance to buy land at 10%
commission. Not one among them believes that there will be any manufacturing in these SEZs but
only real estate development for the Mumbai elite and NRIs. They see no future in the SEZ. They
also discussed the situation in Vidharba where there is so much land and yet farmers are committing
suicide while the government does nothing for the affected people. Conversely the same government
while making all the right noises about Vidharbha and protecting the rights and livelihoods of the
farmers there is forcing an SEZ on this extremely fertile area of Konkan. They mentioned that this
regions has never never experienced even a drought in living memory.
Deev (pop 2000)
Anant Gaikwad is a barber in the village, according to him the SEZ will create a hell and make them
loose their livelihood, the community will get dispersed causing insecurity and loss of cultural
moorings
Ramkrisna Mhatre a farmer, owns two and half acres of land which supports a family of
ten. He totally opposes cash compensation and knows that money will not last long while the
land will feed generations. Taking from the past experiences of industrialization in that area,
he knows how compensation money was largely spent in the dance bars
16
Deev also has two large gram panchayat fishing ponds each of which are auctioned for
around one lakh rupees and they also know that the person who takes in the auction makes
three times the amount.
Avinash Mhatre, the Panchayat has made a resolution opposing the SEZ and they have
written to the Tehsildar about this. But the Tehsildar has made a false report that this entire
region is barren and not a blade of grass grows there, whereas the village is rich with rice
fields, salt pans and aqua culture.
Kusum Bai Thakur retired teacher village Deev owns 4 acres of land which supports ten
members. In her family three of his sons are employed while two are government servants.
One son is in HPCL even though her sons are employed, yet she opposes the SEZ, saying that
the experience of the nearby Nippon steel factory where no local youth is employed, whereas
local people are only hired as contract laborers who get about fifty rupees as wages. She is
also totally opposed to cash compensation and says how people had earlier spent money on
dance bars
She is convinced that Reliance is not going to build any industries, this entire SEZ is a big
land scam where luxury villas and related infrastructure will be built for Bombay elites and
the NRIs she feels this is a sell out the foreign MNCs who will take over the country and the
sovereignty of the country will be lost she calls it re-colonization. For her the land gives
permanent employment and safe guards the country’s food security and sovereignty. The land
of their village is very fertile and gives 20 quintals of rice per acre, once the farmers are
ousted they cannot compete in the modern industrial sector for employment. Even earlier the
RCF near Alibag and Nippon steel in Vadkhal (Pen Taluka) show that people don’t get
employment and blow up the compensation money. She said women feel the pain of
displacement and that is why the participation of women in these movements is high. She has
been to all the rallies and feels woman are militant and will give a stiff resistance. She also
talked about how Reliance has agents in every village who are pressuring the youth in
villages to give up their land. The local MLA Ramdas Patil (Cong I) is completely corrupt
and he supports the SEZ and has been threatening them to give up the land. Whenever there
is a peaceful agitation by the villagers the Reliance agents throw stones at the police to incite
and provoke the police to use repressive measures. But she says that the villagers are ready
for any kind of repression. From Feb 5 to March 5th when a hunger strike was going on in

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that area A.R. Antulay (Ex CM and current MP) his birthday was celebrated by the local
MLA Ramdas Patil, Antulay went from Delhi to Pen but did not meet the hunger strikers.
17
Group meeting of Six women of different caste and age groups. All of them were strongly
opposed to cash compensation because they have seen how men have wasted their
compensation money from Nippon Steel etc. They have also seen the conditions of the
oustees from the Koyna Dam. They don’t believe the CM or Mukesh Ambani’s promise for
rehabilitation, the nearby Nippon Steel has not given employment to local people, especially
the women; they are only given contract labor for unskilled work. In the nearby Panvel and
Uran Taluka CIDCO had acquired land in the 1970s and 1980s and the men had wasted all
their compensation money in liquor.
Malegarhvadi
Dhanajay Mhatre is a retired teacher and his son Anant Mhatre is one of activists. They
have 2 acres of land and get 40 qt of rice and gets Rs.5500 as pension. According to him he
has seen the industrialization of that area such as the JNPT, RCF, Nippon Steel; they came
people spent all their compensation money in the dance bars, it has corrupted the youth and
they are no more willing to do any physical labor, they have fine houses but the Reliance SEZ
will destroy the landscape and culture. This SEZ is not for any manufacturing industry but is
actually a real estate scam. Luxury villas will be built for the Mumbai elite (since it is only 20
km by sea and 35 km by road) and for NRI’s, whereas the local people will become just wage
slaves and domestic workers. Right now the village people have a lot of independence and
self reliance which will be destroyed. This is a very prosperous area with lots of fish farms
and aqua culture with exotic varieties such as Jitadas (Tiger Prawns), Pomfret, Chivana,
Bangra, Mrugal, all of which fetch a rate of about Rs. 200 to 300 per kg.
Ghora Bandar
One of the most famous fishing villages of Maharastra and they earn millions of rupees. 90%
of the people are engaged in fishing. Ghoda Bandar has a 70 houses
Narain Patil, Sambhaji Patil, Ramesh Mhatre, Ganesh Mahtre all of them have
motorized fishing boats each of which employ 7-8 people. They go out to around 40 km in
the sea for seven to eight days and their weekend earnings can be up to one lakh. They catch
Tiger Lobsters (up to Rs.600 per kg) , Shevri, Singhada and Simboda. The entire village is
completely opposed to the SEZ since they will never get such a comfortable livelihood
elsewhere. They are confident that they will win the struggle and they have no faith in
mainstream political parties. The villagers have made groups so that at one time only half the
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villagers will go out to sea for fishing while the other half will stay back to continue the
agitation.
Bairamkotak (pop 1000)
The whole village goes for fishing and they all own land.
N.G. Patil owns about 6 acres of land lives with a joint family of 24 members. They do rice
cultivation and fishing but are comfortable with what they earn. Even if he is given 60 lakh
per acre he is not going to give up the land. He has seen the cash compensation given by
Nippon Steel and IPCL how this money was wasted. He is not afraid of the government and
its means of oppression.
Ravindra Patil owns 4.75 acres of land his elder brother goes for fishing and earns around
400 rupees per day, that is why he is unwilling to give up his land and says that he doesn’t
mind spending his time in jail but will put up a fight to finish, he will not give his land for
any price.
Damaji Gopal Mhatre is landless and with three other members of the family works as an
agricultural labourer. The rest of the time he works as mason and also does some fishing. He
opposes the SEZ and willing to put up a stiff resistance
Mantrivadi hamlet (pop around 25 house holds)

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Ramdas Patil
Owns 2.25 aces of land does fishing earning around 300 to 400 rupees per day. Doesn’t want to give
up his land wants to fight
Shankar Vittal Mhatre is a farmer, he owns two acres and makes around Rs. 300 to 400 rupees per
day from fishing has a comfortable living doesn’t want to give up his land and he opposes the SEZ,
since he knows that land will feed generations.
Amar Chand Mhatre is part of seven family member household and he owns two and a half acres
of fish pond, he hires 13 acres of ponds earns more than seven lakh rupees per year from fish
farming and he does not want the SEZ.
Kane Village
Kane has 17 boats and 4 tractors for sand mining. More then 100 families are dependant on sand mining and there
are two boats for ferry service supporting two families. There are around 50 masons earning about Rs. 200 rupees per
day.
Dilip Bandakar owns three acres of land, he has studied up to 8th class. He supplies sand from the
Bhogawati river has taken a tractor on loan ten years ago for supplying sand. He has repaid the loan
and earns around Rs 300 at the least and up to Rs. 1500 depending on the season. He buys sand for
Rs. 1200 per tractor trolley and sells for Rs. 1600 per trolley inside the village and Rs. 2000 outside
the village depending on the distance. He opposes the SEZ.
Prabhakar Bhoir also works as a labourer collecting sand from the Bhogawati river. He earns Rs 70
in filling one tractor trolley. He fills around five to six trolleys per day. He talked about the people in
boats who dig the sand from the riverbed; the boat owner gets Rs 1200 per day the labourers digging
sand make Rs 150 to 200 per day. He also opposes the SEZ
Raghunath Mhatre own one acre of land and it gives him rice for eight months then he works as a
mason and earns around 80 rupees per day. He has 8 family members and gets around 15 days of
work in month as mason, the other days he goes for fishing.
Narain Bhoir four family members collects rice from the village and supplies to the rice mills there
are five people more in the village who do the same work they make a comfortable living don’t want
to be displaced and the SEZ will force them out from their livelihood willing to fight until last.
Rave Village (pop 1200)
Around 80% who work as labourers, sharecroppers and fisherfolk. The fishermen make around
Rs.250 per day. 100% literate village with many engineers and doctors, but no one wants the SEZ.
Pramod Patil According to him the biggest problem will be that their culture will be destroyed and
the community will get dispersed. Despite being well educated the youth do not want the SEZ. There
is no public interest in this project only luxury villas, five star hotels and golf courses will be built.
There is no chance of local people benefiting, even for the women, at the most they will turn into
domestic help for these villas. He thinks the government is insisting on this MMSEZ because it has
been bought over by Reliance money lot of money has changed hands and greased the palms of all
political parties.
Vashi Village (1000 house holds)
70% landed and 30% landless, some are government teachers, many are salt pan workers, 7shops in the village, 10%
are Kolis who make around Rs.250-400 per day since the fishing bay is nearby which is rich in fish resources. Many
have shops in Pen or are doing business running small scale industries.
Janardhan Mukund Mhatre According to him the basic problem lies in the opening up of the
Indian economy where the central and state government, irrespective of the political parties are
working as agents of MNCs and Indian monopoly houses. There is no real development in this
process of economic growth, this entire MMSEZ is a real estate scam where the government will
acquire land from farmers at a very cheap price and then offer it to developers at a much higher rate.
i.e The government is offering @ Rs. 10 lakh per acre, but once developed this land will be sold at
Rs.35-40 crore per acre. He said that villagers read in the newspapers about the land market in

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Mumbai, barely 30 km away, where the mill lands are auctions at more than Rs.100 crore per acre.
This Reliance MMSEZ is one of the biggest land scams in Asia.

Panvel Taluka Interviews

Kelwane Village (pop 1100 households)
Is a fishing village and the main castes are Koli and Agri, around 30% are landless and around 70% do fishing.
On an average each member makes at least Rs.300-400 per day from fishing. From the sand mining, around Rs.200-
300 per day as wages.
In 1984 CIDCO had tried to acquire land in their village and in the adjoining Uran Taluka where the
police had opened fire on the protestors, killing nine. Since then the mood of the people had been
strongly against land acquisition.
Vishwanath Mhatre (Local NCP leader) Though the NCP is a partner in the state government he
opposed the MMSEZ because it is grossly anti-people and the fact that the government has sold out
to Reliance, because of this he has taken an anti party stand. According to him the argument that the
SEZ will generate industry and employment is rubbish since this area is already heavily industrialized
and there has been very little employment generated. When land was taken for CIDCO, no one was
employed from his village. This MMSEZ will be a luxury housing colony for the super rich of
Mumbai, with golf courses, airports etc, while destroying the already largely self sufficient village
economy. He owns only 2 acres of land, but through farming and fishing he owns two trawlers,
which generates enough livelihood for several people. The local panchayat rejected the offer of the
SEZ through a resolution passed in the gram sabha, so the company started tempting the villagers.
Reliance themselves offered him Rs.10 lakh per acre for his land. His two daughters who are
graduates, was offered a job of Rs. 5000 per month to motivate people to give up their land, which
she refused to do.
Pandive Village (pop 12000)
All of the villagers own only small bits of land since their land was acquired by the Jawaharlal Nehru
Port Trust and CIDCO. From this village almost 25% are government servants and some are
employed in and around factories.
Dilip Patil owns only half acre of land. Given the experience of JNPT and CIDCO no one will be
given employment in the MMSEZ. The compensation from JNPT and CIDCO was wasted on dance
bars and other such things. Now even if they get cash from Reliance, it would be of not much use
since there is not much scope for developing a business or any such enterprise in this area Since 20%
are landless they will excluded form this compensation in anyway.
Jui Village (pop 1500)
Mostly Agri,Karadi and Koli castes.
Around 150 people work in salt pans, 200 are fisherfolk and 20% are landless.
Dr. Subash Geerat (Monthly income about Rs.20,000) . The villagers grow chillies and other
vegetables in the nearby hills and they earn a good income from this sale. He opposes the MMSEZ.

Why farmers hate Videocon, Reliance, Mahindra...

Author: Manshi Asher
Date: June 2007
Land has been vanishing from the records
Dissatisfied and angry people gathered yet again on May 16 at Wagholi. 20 km from Pune
city,to chalk out a strategy on how to deal with the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) crisis that has
hit their lives,"This government actually does not have a plan, The SEZ is the most unplanned
form of development, Any land is identified by a developer and the government Jumps up to
hand it over. It does not bother to even look at who is using the land and whose life may depend
on it,"said a farmer from Wagholi panchayat.
On May 5, Ramdas Dabade, Zilla Parishad member from Wagholi went to the Haveli tehsil
office of Pune district for some work and discovered that his satbara or the 7/12 legal title to his
land was no longer in his name. The land on paper now belonged to the Maharashtra Industrial

24
Development Corporation (MIDC). Soon it was discovered that this change in status of his land
was not an isolated case. More than 5,000 acres belonging to about 4,500 farmers in Kesnand,
Bakori. Lonikand and Wagholi had been transferred to the MIDC.
Exactly one year ago, in May 2006, a public notice was issued saying that the proposed land
would be taken over by the MIDC. The farmers have been consistently opposing this arbitrary
decision but they were ignored. Little did farmers know that without notices being issued to
individual farmers their entire land would be actually transferred. They did not realise that there
was a private company involved with a bigger plan than what they were aware of.
Videocon, the domestic private electronics company, had received an in principle approval for
a 1,000 hectare Multi Product Special Economic Zone in these four villages in the middle of last
year. According to the MIDC, the SEZ will be a joint venture with the MIDC having a share in the
project. The land is prime property being adjacent to the highway, Less than 20 km from the
city. the area is already full of warehouses and crawling with real estate developers.
The land of the four villages, however. is entirely under agriculture through the year with sugar
cane. wheat, jowar, bajra and vegetables like onions and cabbages being the main produce.
Almost 3.000 acres is irrigated by the Mula Mutha river with the help of lift irrigation schemes,
Most cash crops are sold to Pune and Mumbai markets. With the city creeping into the area.
farmers are already facing a scarcity of resources. Water for drinking is becoming scarce and
ground water levels are depleting.
"All we want from the government is water, electricity and good rates for our crops. Then we
can manage our own 'development'. They do not need to bother," said Smita Kolte from the
area. In fact last month the District Collector invited the village leaders several times to discuss
the package they will be offered in return for their land. When asked about the package, the
sarpanch of Kesnand promptly said: "I don't know what the package contains and I do not want
to know either. When 1 do not want to give my land then why should I bother?"
The meeting on May 16, where almost a 1.000 farmers were present. was attended by all local
political leaders from across parties, including ex MLA Gajanan Babar, and MLA Vilas Lande,
from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). While all the politicians showed their solidarity with
the decision of local people to fight the acquisition, there was a clear undercurrent of dissent as
farmer leaders repeatedly spoke of not aligning with any political party on this issue.
"This is only about farmers. We do not trust any political party on this," said a Bharat Kisan
Sangh representative, There was a brief verbal tussle between Nationalist Congress Party
(NCP) workers and farmers when some speakers accused NCP leaders Sharad Pawar and Ajit
Pawar of being hand in glove with the company. What stands exposed is the way MIDC is
getting roped into SEZ projects as a partner essentially to acquire land because the companies
are failing to do the Job themselves. "The details of the MIDC Videocon partnership are not
clear. We have no information from the MIDC whether it is an SEZ or not.
We found out that an SEZ is on the cards through Videocon." revealed a farmer.Meanwhile the
Congress led state government, despite making commitments about halting land acquisition for
the Raigad Reliance SEZ, is still continuing its attempts. "Company agents are roaming the
area to strike deals and the news is that the local administration is going to initiate action for
acquisition soon," said Ulka Mahajan, an activist from the area and one of the conveners of
NAPM (National Alliance of People's Movements).
On the rehabilitation package the stand of the farmers remains unchanged they are unwilling
to part with their land. Farmers' struggles against SEZs have come to the fore in other parts of
Raigad, Rajgurunagar (Bharat Forge), Karla (Mahindra group) and Aurangabad (MIDC).
To reiterate opposition to the SEZ legislation and the developments related to land grabbing a
meeting was convened in Mumbai on May 5 under the leadership of Justice PB Sawant. Some
of the organisations involved in the meeting included Lok Sashan Andolan, Mahamumbai
Shetkari Sangarsh Samiti. Yuva Bharat. Adivasi Ekta Parishad, Bhoomi Sena, All India Kisan

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Mazdoor Sabha, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi. A1FTU, Tuer and Krantikari Mazur Vikas Sangathan. A
resolution demanding scrapping of the SEZ Act 2005 was passed at the meeting.
Maharashtra stands in the number one position as far as the list of approved SEZ proposals
go but has fallen behind in getting the projects notified. As on May1. 13 of the 71 projects were
notified by the Ministry of Commerce of which seven are IT projects involving smaller areas of
land. The Multi product
SEZs have bigger land deals that are yet to be struck as farmers put up stiff resistance to the
mindless destruction of their livelihoods. Farmers did not realise that there was a private
company involved with a bigger plan than what they were aware of. Videocon, the domestic
private electronics company, had received an in principle approval for a 1,000 hectare Multi
Product SEZ in these four villages.
Source: Civil Society

CONCLUSION:

W H Y A R E S E Z ’ S B E I N G I M P L E M E N T E D D E S P I T E P E O P L E ’ S R E S I S TA N C E ?

While there have been several arguments being given for the creation of SEZs, ranging from the
pressing needs of the developed nations for cheaper labour and resources to the need to increase
employment, increase the GDP etc, what is often missed out is the fact that none of this can happen
unless there is a political willingness to execute these SEZs. This is not to say that MNCs, the
implementation of the New Economic Policies, the opening up of India to the free flow of foreign
capital, and the so called regime of “liberalisation” are not the contributory factors to this ever
increasing number of SEZs mushrooming all over India.

There is an ever increasing crisis in the developed nations, faced with depleting natural resources,
high costs of labour, increased spending on state welfare, over production and various other reasons
are compelling these nations to seek captive markets and captive cheap resources in the developing
nations such as India. Our political leaders have traditionally been more aligned to serving the
interests of the powerful ever since the British colonial period and this is yet another extension of
foreign rule done through the Indian parliament to benefit the developed nations and save their
countries from the vagaries of wrong economic policies.

However, the critical point of the “willingness” to develop SEZs can be found in a large section of
the large Indian landowners who have a vested interest in setting up of these SEZ’s. The fact that the
bulk of India’s MPs and MLAs belong to the landed gentry and it is this section in whose hands rests
the controls over the reigns of political power in India With the huge tax and duty sops, effectively
subsidies, being provided to industry under the SEZ rules, the scramble for setting up SEZs is bound
to increase. This mad scramble, has lead to a spiraling increase in the premium over those lands
earmarked for SEZ projects. The very fact that in the future, industry will not have to pay any taxes
or custom duties means that it is willing to invest in a one time higher cost in acquiring land, keeping
in mind that in the long run this cost will be more than offset by the subsidies it will gain through no
taxes and no custom duties. It is exactly this section of the Indian ruling elite which is greedily eying a
huge windfall in marked up costs and premiums over land sale and are desperate to set up SEZs and
also sell their land. It is this landed ruling elite which is using the armed might of the Indian state to
force the other unwilling and not so greedy members of the peasantry to forcibly part with their land
for up coming SEZ projects.

On the other side, the larger majority of the middle and marginal peasantry see this one time
payment as a threat to their single, most secure form of livelihood, which is farming. Neither are they
enamoured by the cash compensation being offered. These farmers know that their skills are in

26
farming and fishing - not in managing loose cash. Numerous interviews by the affected people in
Raigarh have clearly put this point across that they have seen the disastrous consequences within
those families who have wasted their entire compensation money in conspicuous consumption. For
the landless and the sharecroppers the issue becomes even more threatening since they will be
completely excluded from the process of both compensation and also employment, while loosing
their sole means of livelihood. It is the open fact of the reality of their lives which has compelled
these peasants to take up resistance against these SEZ projects. It is also their determination which is
forcing party workers of the ruling political parties to take a stand which is often antagonistic to the
over all policies of the party itself.

With 140,000 hectares of mostly agricultural land forcibly acquired to set up only 50 of the 300
approved SEZs and with the average Indian land holding of about 1 hectare, a minimum
displacement of 140,000 families –with lakhs of other agriculture dependent labourers and artisans
loosing their livelihoods is imminent. To boot, the landless will get no compensation. This forced
mass displacement will collapse Indian agriculture already under attack by the developed nations
through GM seeds and rising input costs, forcing India to become dependent for food imports from
the US and Australia and Europe.

It is also ironical that industry as advocates of “liberalisation and free market economy” does not
want to acquire land for its SEZs directly through the “open market”, but instead forces the to state
to use antiquated colonial laws such as the Land Acquisition Act coupled with brute force to compel
farmers to part from their highly productive land; all in the name of "public purpose". This has
turned the Indian ruling elite into mere middle men/ brokers/ property dealers.

If we record the violence and oppression that has gone into land acquisition for industry, we can
clearly see that this is just the beginning. There have been brutal state excesses while attempting to
forcibly acquire land at Nandigram, POSCO (Jagatsingpur) Dadri, Raigarh. In Raigad, Maharastra,
police firing was supplemented by violent and intimidating activities by local criminals appointed by
Reliance to do so. Reliance, which has official control of 60,000 out of the 1,40,000 acres of land
sanctioned till date in the name of SEZs, is going to emerge as the largest landlord in the country,
and leaves the implications open for consideration. Of the minimum 1000 hectare land required for
developing an SEZ, only a small part will be used for “core activities” whereas the bulk is being
acquired for “non productive purposes” reserved for services and residential complexes etc. to solely
benefit the construction and builder lobby. It is hardly surprising that the biggest builders in the
country are queuing up before the government with SEZ proposals.

Considering the mammoth sops that industry will be getting in terms of 100 per cent Foreign Direct
Investment, 100 percent exemption from stamp duty and registration charges, customs, service tax,
income tax for five years, substantial subsidies on electricity and water, it is obvious that SEZ are a
little more than another tax-dodge. Sundry tax exemptions already cost us Rs.1,58,000 crores. If the
primary attraction of an SEZ are tax benefits, the investments there are definitely going to be a
diversion from the domestic tariff areas. The Fiscal loss will be of about Rs.115,00 crores, without
taking into account the tax loss from the profits of the developers of SEZs. Recently Posco steel
plant in Orissa has been given the approval to classify itself as an SEZ despite the promoters only
wanting land to set up their plant and a captive iron ore mine. When the SEZ scheme got unfurled,
Posco decided there was no harm if it also got some additional tax benefits, and so applied for a
SEZ, which will provide it an effective subsidy of more than 98,000 crores in the next 15 years!!
These kinds of “development goals” will render lakhs of farmers landless, destroying the livelihoods
of many lakhs more; will allow the free and open exploitation of labour and cause huge chunks of

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resources, private and otherwise, to pass on into private hands? The continuation of this trajectory of
development has already compelled people to rename SEZs to “Special Exploitation Zones”.

REFERENCES

1. 20th Dec 2009 - Back ground Notes on SEZ: Ministry of Commerce & Industries,
Department of Commerce – Sunday, 20th December 2009

2. http://sez.icrindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/rmm_sez_study.pdf:15th
July 2005 to 15th Sept 2005 - A Study on Reliance MMSEZ – By Asit

3. http://www.india-seminar.com/2008/582/582_bhaskar_goswami.htm -
Consequences for agriculture and food securities – Bhaskar Goswamy

4. http://www.infodriveindia.com/export-import-news/Govt-land-reforms-
report-says-2827.aspx - Govt Land Reforms says SEZ enormously desctructive –
Business Standard 27.11.2009

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