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St. Mary's Convent High school, Mapusa is staging a play titled "Lion King"
December 1, 2007 - Hanuman Hall, Mapusa
to fundraise for a false ceiling for the school hall
& upgrading the school playground
Headmistress Sr. Namika A.C. / Teacher Mrs. Sonia Noronha
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Although the SEZs are set up mainly to attract foreign investments and
increase the exports, but the major portion of cake of economic
benefits would not benefit the common people but a select few and
mostly unscrupulous faction in the current ruling Congress party who are
pro SEZ and are determined to go ahead with the proposed SEZ projects in
conjunction with Real Estate Developers mafia both Goan and outsiders.
It seems setting up of SEZs is imminent.
Recently people had golden opportunity to express their opposition to
Congress Government's proposal to set up SEZs during recently concluded
South Goa parliamentary elections either by defeating the Congress
candidate or abstaining from voting as a token for referendum against
SEZs.
There are n number of features from the SEZ act which will allow a
platform for opportunity to politicians to manipulate the advantages in
their favour for their own personal gains.
We are certainly going to face uprooting of massive population from
their agricultural lands from where they earn their livelihood or
houses where they are staying for years for establishing large sized
'industries', infrastructure projects for SEZs once these Zones are
notified in unison with the enforcement of the Land Acquisition Act. By
this process land grabbing and displacement of land holders will be
easier task for the Government to follow.
Plundering of forest, water and other natural resources, handing over
of the reigns of the economy to the MNCs and their Indian agents,
massive devastation of Goan demography and the spectre of slavery are
some of the most drastic consequences of these SEZs..
The implementation of the SEZ policy is going to create exclusive
enclaves where no laws of the land that protects the rights of the
citizens at large will be applicable, which indicates near total breach
of our civil rights and sovereignty
Employment : In the area of employment the disadvantage of SEZ is quite
similar to the disadvantages of Reliance Industries entering retail
business. New jobs are created, but for whom ? Goa does not have
manpower which will fit in all type of technical jobs so SEZs will have
to rely on migrant labourers.
Secondly Companies would like to simply relocate to SEZ to take
advantage of the tax concession's being offered. This will bring about a
significant revenue loss to the government. This will result in a kind
of 'disguised industry' just as 'disguised unemployment'.
Conclusion: Finally I would like to point out that SEZ can become a
dangerous tool in the hands of power hungry politicians who want to show
how much investment the state has attracted in their term, and so many
jobs have been created but it will not benefit the Aam Aadmi if the
State leadership has no clear vision or strategy to move forward.
Vinay
