APPEAL TO SEND PROTEST LETTER ON SEZ TO THE GOVERNMENT
Dear All,
We are all aware that the UPA government is promoting the creation of
the Special Economic Zones all over the country. These are special
tariff free zones for export and service industires to be setup under
SEZ Act 2005. These would be Deemed Foreign Territories which will have
their own systems of governance and rules. Over the past few months the
SEZ Board of Approvals (setup by the Commerce & Industry Ministry)
has cleared 267 SEZ projects all over the country. These projects are
ranging from petro-chemical plants to power plants to manufacturing
and processing units to golf course and hotel industires etc.
For SEZs the labour laws have been liberlised alongwith environmental
and coastal regulations. The impact of these export oriented industries
on environment and local people would be enormous. The Bill was passed
quietly in the upper house of the 'Rajya Sabha' within a day. No
consultations whatsoever had been held by the ministry before
finalising this act.
In Mahrashtra alone more then 50 SEZs projects have been finalised and
of which 11 are in Pune District with 2 mega SEZs in Mumbai and Raigarh
District (Reliance) . The land acquisition in these areas covers
about 4000 to 14,0000 hectares of which almost 60-75% is rich
agricultural land. People in Mahrashtra have started opposing these
projects and demanding that the government should protect their rights
and livelihoods threatened by the SEZ projects and private industries
In the past three months there have been several meetings at the local level and people have submitted memorandums and Gram sabha's resoulutions, but the state governments are going ahead with land acquisition. In Penn of Raigarh District (Maharashtra) and in Dadri of Haryana the farmers protests have been suppressed by the state authorities and false cases have been filed against local people. Moreover, the Commerce Ministry is pacing up approvals to projects inspite of questions raised by the Finance Minsiter himself
On
26th August, many local farmers groups of Mahrashtra alongwith NAPM and
other NGOs have formed a forum 'SEZ Virodhi Sangharsh Samit' to save
the rights of farmers against proposed SEZs.
Please extend your support to the protesting farmers and local people by immediately sending out the appeal
demanding repealment of the SEZ Act 2005.
http://www.ncasindia.org/Public/Whatnew/sez/sez_memorandum.asp
You can modify appeal and send on behalf of your organisation/network.
In Solidarity
Rifat Mumtaz
National Centre for Advocacy Studies
Sanjay Sangwai
National Alliance of People's Movements
--
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"I may disagree of what you say, but I will defend to
the death your right to say it."
-Voltaire
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SAVAD RAHMAN
subeditor,MADHYAMAM daily,
kochi-18
india
cell:(91)-9846085873
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