October 22, 2007
PRESS RELEASE
A Memorandum was handed over to the Chief Minister today by the PEOPLE'S
MOVEMENT AGAINST SEZS, an initiative of the citizens of Goa, lodging a
strong protest against the imposition and implementation of the SEZ policy
in Goa.
Every elected Government is expected to safeguard and protect the collective
assets as also the interests and identity of the community it professes to
serve. If the Government itself adopts policies that amount to a virtual
sell out of the family jewels, then it is time for the people to organise
themselves and stand together unitedly to safeguard the land of their
forefathers and protect the interests of future generations.
WHY CITIZENS OF GOA FELT COMPELLED TO LODGE AN FIR AGAINST THE GIDC BOARD
Despite a political party having threatened to file an FIR against the GIDC
Board for the alleged irregularities and illegalities committed by it in
allotting land for five SEZs in Phase IV of the Verna Industrial Estate, the
citizens of Goa, under the banner of PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT AGAINST SEZS, felt it
necessary to pre empt any prospect of this life and death issue for Goa to
be used politically and to retain the initiative with the ordinary citizens
who have no motives other than love and concern for their motherland.
The allocation of land for five SEZs in the Verna Industrial Estate, namely
K. Raheja Corporation Pvt. Ltd., Paradigm Logistic & Distribution Pvt.
Ltd., Inox Mercantile Pvt. Ltd. , Planet View Mercantile Company Pvt. Ltd.
and Maxgrow Finlease Pvt. Ltd. has been characterised throughout by adhocism
and flouting of the rules and regulations as follows :
1. Even though the allotment of the land is for Special Economic Zones, none
of the Provisions of the Special Economic Zone Act 2005, more particularly
Sections 3, 4 and 5 thereof, have been followed and therefore the whole
allotment gets nullified on this ground.
2. At least three of the five Companies to whom SEZs have been allotted are
new Companies without any experience at all and K. Raheja Corporation Pvt.
Ltd. is purely a real estate developer. Therefore, it appears that these
Companies have specifically been floated for the purpose of grabbing this
land under the guise of SEZ.
3. Four Applications, which do not bear any inward stamp and number nor the
seal of the respective Companies are all dated 12th April, 2006, and the
land allotment has been approved within six days thereof, without the
Companies even submitting the mandatory Project Reports.
4. The Meeting of the Board held on 19/04/2006 gave a complete go-by to
the Provisions of the Goa, Daman and Diu Industrial Development Act, 1965.
Under Regulation 2, it is a mandatory requirement that the Secretary shall
give seven days clear notice of the ensuing Meeting to the Members of the
Corporation. Under Regulation 3, the Secretary is required to furnish each
Member with the Agenda and the item notes regarding the business included in
the Agenda. The Notice is required to be despatched to the Members by
ordinary post under Certificate of Posting and a Notice is required to be
despatched along with its Annexures. In the instant case, even assuming
that the Application is inwarded on 12th April, 2006, the same could not
have been discussed in the Meeting held on 19/04/2006 as the seven days
clear notice as required under the Regulations could not have been followed;
therefore on the face of this, the allotment in favour of the four Companies
appears to be illegal and in violation of Law .
5. The said land was not acquired for the Special Economic Zone nor has the
same been declared as Special Economic Zone area and no Resolution has been
passed by the Board to change the purpose of acquisition; while the land was
originally acquired solely for industrial purposes it has now been allotted
for SEZ which will have a land use incorporating industrial, commercial as
well as residential.
6. The said allotments of land to four companies, (excluding land allotted
in the form of internal roads and open spaces) have been passed in the
Meeting which was attended by only four Members, namely Chandrakant
Kavlekar, Chairman, GIDC Board & MLA, Aleixo Sequeira, Director, GIDC Board
& MLA, (presently Power Minister), Nitin Kunkolienkar, Director, GIDC Board
& President, GCCI, A. V. Palekar, Managing Director, GIDC, without following
the due procedure of Law. The said allotment of land had not previously
been approved by the Government before being discussed at the Board Meeting
held on 19/04/2006.
7. In the Meeting of the Board held on 07/02/2006; the rates in all the
Industrial Estates were enhanced including Verna Phase I, IA, II and
III, of the Verna Industrial Estate. But in Phase IV of the Verna
Industrial Estate which is a new acquisition and where the rates of
acquisition were also high, the rates have not been enhanced by the
Board possibly to allot the land to the applicant companies at a lesser
rate and thereby cause loss to the Public Exchequer and Public &
Government Revenue.
8. The area allotted to M/s Inox Mercantile Company Pvt. Ltd., is
5,52,089 square meters which is far in excess of that which was
applied for by them i.e., 4,84,832 square metres. While the Board
resolution still stands at 5,52,089 square metres, the Deed of Lease bears
the allotted figure as 4,84,832 square metres.
9. M/s Planet View Mercantile Co. Pvt. Ltd., was neither incorporated on
the day of the application nor on the day of the approval by the Board on
19/04/2006. The said Company was in fact, incorporated only on 26/04/2007.
10. M/s Paradigm Logistics & Distribution Pvt. Ltd; had in fact, paid an
amount of Rs.3,17,30,228/- vide Receipt No. PNJ-51 dated 17/04/2006 towards
the allotment of land, even prior to the approval of the Board Meeting
dated 19/04/2006. This smacks of a complete fraud being played on Public
Revenue and people of Goa by Government Officials in connivance with these
Companies.
11. A letter dated April 12/13, 2006, bearing No.GOA-IDC/BM-287/8325 was
circulated to the Members only on April 17, 2006, including the Minister
for Industries stating that the Meeting would be held on
19/04/2006, and that the Agenda would be circulated shortly.In fact, the
Agenda was circulated only on 19-04-2006 as the acknowledgements reveal. It
is pertinent to note that the Director of Industries acknowledge receipt of
the Agenda at 5.20 p.m. on 19-04-2006 and the Chief Electrical Engineer, who
is also part of the Board, received the intimation of the Agenda at 5.15
p.m. on the 19-04-2006, when in fact the Meeting was convened at 4.00
p.m. on that day itself.
12. Under Regulation 6 (a) regarding the Regulations for determining
the time and place for the Meetings of the Corporation, the procedure
which has to be followed in regard to transaction of business at such
meetings framed in pursuance to Section 51(i)(a) of Goa Daman & Diu
Industrial Development Act, 1965, is that in order to form a quorum, at
least one of the Members nominated under section 4(1)(d) of Goa Daman
& Diu Industrial Development Act, 1965, is required to be present. In
the instant case, the said person not being present at the Meeting held on
19/04/2006, there was no quorum in the eyes of law and therefore all
decisions taken in the said Meeting are null and void.
13. In the 295th Board Meeting of the IDC held on 09/03/2007, as regards
the adoption of bye-laws for IT and Biotech Building with an FAR of 150, the
Board has resolved to adopt the bye-laws for IT and Biotech Parks as per the
approval conveyed by the Town & Country Planning Department vide their
Letter No.27/13/TCP/07/Pt.file(872) dated 01/03/2007. As the said bye-laws
do not apply to SEZs but apply only to IT and Biotech buildings, the Board
by applying these bye-laws to Industrial Areas has violated the law and
completely misapplied the Provisions of IT and Biotech bye-laws, as a ploy
to grant extra FAR for construction to the applicant Companies.
14. The item-wise Cost Projections in the Applications of two companies
do not tally with the total cost of the Project. This indicates that the
Applications have been made in the most haphazard manner and the land has
been allotted to these Companies without there being any application of mind
or thorough scrutiny.
15. In the 287th Meeting of the Board, there is no reference at all of
allotting any open space or space for a road to the Accused Companies and
the same has been done without any Authority of Law or for that matter,
without there being any Board Resolution; therefore, the allotment is void
ab initio. In fact, the said land allotted for open spaces and road was
given at the rate of Rs.100/- per square metre in the 295th Board Meeting
dated 09-03-2007 which is much below the approved rate. In fact, SEZ area
is a contiguous area as per the requirements of SEZ and therefore, all
infrastructural areas like roads, open spaces etc., become a part and parcel
of the SEZ; therefore, the question of the same being allotted separately
at a lower rate does not arise at all.
Thus from the above, it is abundantly clear that the allotment of land done
in favour of the applicant Companies is completely illegal and in violation
of the SEZ Act, 2005; the Goa, Daman & Diu Industrial Development Act, 1965.
By allotting these plots, the Board members of the Goa IDC have shown
favouritism and have allotted the land for some extraneous considerations
and in a completely illegal manner. This whole land allotment appears to be
a big scam and all these five Companies appear to have the aim of grabbing
large tracts of Goan land by using the Government machinery in connivance
and collaboration with the Goa IDC who have willingly obliged these
Companies for obvious reasons, thereby causing loss of revenue to the State
and playing a big fraud on the people of Goa.
In the instant case, there was obviously a conspiracy hatched by the GIDC
Board and the applicant Companies to drain out the Public Exchequer and sell
of Goa precious and limited land assets.
Therefore, an FIR has been lodged under Sections 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13 of
the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, under the Indian Penal Code and
under other laws as applicable.
WHY GOANS SAY NO TO SEZS
SEZs were conceptualised for export promotion, to suit the needs and
requirements of states having an abundance of cheap labour and barren land.
Goa being a tiny state, has neither. Therefore, there is no justification
for the Government to inflict a policy that would open the flood gates for
even more out of state workers and further strain Goa's already crumbling
infrastructure and dilute the fast eroding Goan identity.
That the Government will not supply water to the SEZs only means that they
will get free water by intense tapping of our precious ground water
resources in the form of bore wells or buying commercially through tankers.
Rain water harvesting, will never under any circumstances meet even a
fraction of their needs. And the Chief Minister's assurance that SEZ
developers will have to make their own arrangements for water contravenes
the Government Resolution on SEZs, "Water Supply (ii) The SEZ authority
(Special Economic Zone Authority constituted under sub-section (i) of
Section 13 of SEZ Act) shall ensure the provision of adequate water supply
within the SEZ zones for SEZ units".
In the Verna Industrial Estate, almost every industry has sunk innumerable
borewells indiscrimately because the Government had promised a quantity of
water that it could not supply. As a consequence, the ground water table in
the surrounding villages has been seriously depleted. And the Government
continues to turn a convenient blind eye to this illegal activity. Even
today, in the proposed SEZ in Verna, the developers are certainly not
depending on the Government's erratic and undependable water supply but have
already started sucking the ground water through borewells and the locals
can brace themselves for a future of long, hard, dry days.
After in depth studies of allocation of land and implementation of SEZs that
have already taken place in Goa, there is no doubt that this policy
certainly does not have the objective of export promotion, but is in reality
a ploy to sell off large chunks of Goan land to hungry real estate
enterprises from all over the country, who will enjoy all the tax benefits
earmarked for SEZs, even as they destroy Goa in collusion with the powers
that be.
It is distressing that this callous Government does not feel any compunction
about handing over large tracts of Goan land to SEZs, which are in fact
autonomous islands "a state within a state", where the Government loses
jurisdiction, and for this, the Goa Government and the hapless village
panchayats, do not even benefit through revenue. Why should the "aam aadmi"
of Goa carry this unbearable burden to fulfil the profit motives of vested
interests and real estate developers and in the process create employment
for the undeveloped states of the rest of the country.
The PMAS disagrees with the Chief Minister's statement that that the "state
government cannot go against the permissions given by the Centre for SEZs in
Goa". We'd like to refresh the Chief Minister's memory that he was prepared
to contest the public notice of a Central Government Agency, namely Mormugao
Port Trust, regarding jurisdiction over Goa's coastal waters, which was
notified twenty years ago and yet seemingly has no reservations about
handing over Goa's coastal waters, which was notified twenty years ago, and
yet seemingly, has no reservations whatsoever, in handing over valuable land
assets of Goa to private parties, in the shape of SEZs which are in fact,
autonomous islands, a "state within a state" where the Government loses
jurisdiction, and for this, the Goa Government and the hapless village
panchayats do not even benefit through revenue. Why should the "aam aadmi"
of Goa carry this unbearable burden to fulfil the profit motives of vested
interests and real estate developers and in the process strain Goan
infrastructure by creating employment for the hordes of migrants from
undeveloped states of the rest of the country.
SEZ is a life changing policy for Goans, affecting their demography,
environment, infrastructure and even identity. The CM has been elected by
the Goans to look after their interest and not to fulfil the compulsions of
the Centre or to condone the negligence of previous state Governments. The
Goan "aam aadmi" has said a resounding NO to SEZs through their gram sabha
resolutions and the South Goa Zilla Panchayat resolution. If necessary, he
has to contest any policy thrust upon Goa by the Centre which goes against
the interests of the people he has promised to serve.
The PMAS therefore has appealedto the Chief Minister to kindly:
stay all ongoing SEZ activity in Goa, revoke allocation of all land granted
for SEZs in Goa & withdraw the SEZ policy for Goa immediately
Initiate a CID/CBI inquiry into the alleged frauds in handing over large
tracts of Goan land in Phase IV of the Verna Industrial Estate to so called
SEZ developers
failing which, we will be compelled to proceed to the next step in our plan
of action.
For PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT AGAINST SEZS
Charles Fernandes,
Convenor
