<On the industrial front, the government may have to take up on priority is the decision on special economic zone (SEZ) which was announced by the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram. ...It is the same concept which is pending before the government for long. The Parrikar government kept it on the back-burner for reasons best known to then chief minister. The only thing that happened was that it was transferred from one department to another and the other was identification of some areas. BJP-led NDA government was in power until a year ago but the situation didn?t change. If the Parrikar government had to put in even 25 per cent of the work it ?invested? on IFFI, SEZ might have been a reality by now. It would be important for the Rane government to take the local people into confidence before going in for the new concept -- SEZ ? as it would be the first one in the country.>
As I indicated in a recent post about Goa as guinea pig, the President of GCCI has observed that SEZ requires fundamental changes in the set-ups of Dabolim airport, the seaport and Konkan Railways. All these are in the domain of the central and not the state government. If the Finance Minister is so keen on SEZ then he should be prepared to go to bat with the Defence Minister, the Surface Transport Minister and the Railway Minister simultaneously to check out whether they are willing to play ball. Then the Goa government can put in its formal application so that by the time the SEZ is approved in 6-12 months time, the airport, seaport and railways are ready and the state can hit the decks running. Otherwise, it will do all the paper work for SEZ and any non-cooperation from the "holy trinity" will result in a total hiatus and mud on everyone's faces.
