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ACTION 2007
SCRAP THE ANTI-PEOPLE, ANTI-NATION SEZ ACT 2005
· UPA warned of political defeat and
backlash
· Sonia Gandhi urged to make emergency
intervention
· Left parties and UPA allies requested to
pullout of coalition for the anti-people anti-national
policies of the government
· People vow to fight corporatisation at
all levels
More than 600 representatives from people's
organizations and communities across the country
marched from Jantar Mantar this afternoon to protest
against the Special Economic Zones being set up in the
country. The grave impacts of SEZs have been shown to
the country by the Nandigram atrocities. The people
gathered at ACTION 2007 have raised these grave
consequences of SEZs, which include large scale forced
acquisition of land (for the "public purpose" of
promoting private profit), the loss of agricultural
land for real estate speculation. "This is an assault
on the nation's food security and farmers" said the
activists of action 2007.
The SEZ Act compromises severely on sovereignty of
the country by making thousands of hectares of land
"foreign territory". Fishworkers movements from
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh have
raised issues of destruction of the coastline by SEZ
projects. Poorno, an activist from Orissa spoke about
the movement against the POSCO steel project, which
has been given an SEZ approval by the Centre, which
will displace more 400 poor families in coastal
Orissa's Jagatsinghpur District.
33 projects are coming up in Konkan region alone
leading to a complete destruction of the Western Ghats
forests. Scarcity of water and power, especially due
to SEZs coming up close to Urban Centres has been
raised as an issue.
"The problem of unregulated labour exploitation
has been seen in existing SEZs and will worsen
further". The Ministry fo Finance itself has raised
the issue of huge revenue losses to the state
exchequer.
Prasad Bagve, a farmer activist from Karla,
Maharahstra, where farmers are up in arms against the
Mahindra and Mahindra SEZ, spoke of the SEZ being
detrimental to farmers. "These are hi-tech industries
and there is no employment that will be generated for
us farmers", he said. "We demand the repeal of the SEZ
Act, 2005 and an immediate halt on any future
approvals", said Prasad Bhagve. Mr. Arun Khote
(NCDHR) demanded an annulment of all notified SEZ and
that land acquired be returned to the original owner
or the relevant public department.
Since the past one year communities have issued
memorandums and appeals consistently raising these
concerns about the establishment of SEZs. But instead
of having a dialogue the state machinery has resorted
to violently suppressing people's protests, as the
entire world witnessed through the media coverage of
the merciless killings of the peasants in places like
Nandigram. This will remain a shameful scar
imprinted on the memory of the public.
ACTION 2007 is a collective of more than 200
organizations who have been engaged in an indefinite
protest against the anti-people policies of the UPA
regime since March 19 th at Jantar Mantar. After a
week of People's Parliament (Jan Sansad) on the street
of Jantar Mantar, representatives of people's
movements and affected people from across the country
are engaged in a process of demonstrations against
policies and negotiations with ministries on different
issues.
A delegation of 5 comprising representatives of
Action 2007 and people affected by SEZs from Orissa
and Maharashtra submitted a memorandum to the Ministry
of Commerce and Industry.
Today's massive demonstration against SEZs is an
indicator of the growing anger of the peasants,
agricultural workers and the rural underclass against
neo-liberal policies being pursued by the UPA
government dictated by the Bretton Wood institutions.
ACTION 2007 Coordination Committee
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT 9910345405
--
www.action2007. net
Delhi Office: Action 2007, 1-A, Goela Lane, Under
Hill Road Civil Lines, Delhi ? 110054
Tel.: 011-23933307, (0)9868200316 E-Mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] com
Mumbai Office: Action 2007, C/0 Chemical Mazdoor
Sabha, 29-30, First Floor, 'A wing' Haji Habib
Building, Naigaon Cross Road, Dadar (East),
Mumbai-400014, Tel.: 022-24150529, (0)9969363065
- --
Anivar Aravind
moving Republic
Global Alternate Information Applications(GAIA)
Peringavu.P.O
Thrissur-680018
Kerala
Ph. +91 9446545336
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