http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20080131&filename=news&sec_id=4&sid=20
Goa CM against Centre's SEZ plans
R VENUGOPALAN NAIR
ATISH NAIK
Packing up or heading for somewhere else: Workers at the SEZ proposed for Keri
On New Year's eve, Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat declared that his
government had decided "to do away with" the special economic zones
(sezs) in their present form and had asked the centre to de-notify the
approved sezs. This is, however, easier said than done.
Disparate voices have emerged from the Union Commerce Ministry in
regard to the proposal. Commerce Secretary G K Pillai, who also heads
the Board of Approval for sezs, said the state government did not have
the power to scrap notified sezs. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath
contradicted him. After a meeting with the Goa chief minister on
January 3, he said there were "absolute provisions" in the sez law for
changes, including a review of notified sezs.
Rajeev Dhavan, senior supreme court advocate and a constitutional
expert, believes that since the statute was framed by the centre only
it can revoke it. However, he says that India's cooperative federalism
system has enough space for resolving such disputes. No notification
is irrevocable, he says.
The Congress has gone into overdrive to ensure that Kamat's rejection
is not taken as the party's position on sezs. Congress spokesperson
Abhishek Manu Singhvi told journalists that the party had no role to
play in the Goa sezs and that it was a decision of the state
government and the commerce ministry.
The Kamat government announced scrapping sezs after a panel set up to
study their viability observed that "these tax-free havens were not
right for Goa's development". The panel added that the proposed sezs
would not match Goa's talent pool, nor create employment, but would
burden the state's infrastructure.
This was the opposite of what former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane
had written to the Union commerce minister on December 21, 2006: sezs
would benefit Goa economically as well as help generate a lot of
employment.
In 2006, the state government recommended 15 sezs to the centre. Seven
were approved. Formal notification has been issued for three sezs:
Meditab Specialties Pvt Ltd, Peninsula Pharma Research Centre Pvt Ltd
and K Raheja Corporation Pvt Ltd. While Meditab got the permission to
set up a pharma sez at Keri, Ponda, on 123 hectares (ha), Peninsula
Pharma was to set up an r & d centre and a biotech park at Sancoale,
Mormugao, on 20 ha. Raheja Corporation was to set up an it sez at
Verna Industrial Estate on 106 ha.
But what the government proposed, the people opposed. On the eve of
Goa's Liberation day on December 18, 2007, Goa's Movement Against sez
convenor Mathany Saldanha declared: "We demand immediate
de-notification of all notified sezs." People fear that sezs will
strain the infrastructure, especially water and power, besides leading
to an influx of migrant workers. " sezs will encourage real estate,
leading to environmental degradation," says social activist Aires
Rodrigues. The situation turned tense on December 23, when Saldanha
told tourists to leave Goa by December 28 because the anti- sez
agitation "could take an ugly turn".
Pressure builds up
Even as the administration tried to calm tempers, the chief minister
met leaders of the anti- sez movement. The opposition bjp planned an
agitation from January 1, while the Congress's partner in the
government, the Nationalist Congress Party, declared it did not want
any sez in Goa.
Goa's experiment with sezs ran into further trouble when a task force
appointed by the chief minister to look into the Regional Plan 2021
noted on December 23, 2007, that " sezs are detrimental to Goa's
interests ". The Goa unit of the Congress forced the Kamat government
to do a reality check. An sez study committee set up by the Congress's
Goa unit in its interim report stated that sezs in their present form
were not in Goa's interests. Under attack from all quarters, the
government recommended scrapping sezs.
This has upset the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (gcii). "In
the long run this will lead to industrialists avoiding Goa," said gcii
president Nitin Kunkoliekar. But will the three developers, who have
invested crores of rupees in the sezs, agree to shut shop? "The state
government's recommendations apply only to projects that have not got
permission. The sez policy has no clause to de-notify an sez that has
been permitted," says Nitin Sardesai, counsel for Meditab Specialties,
which has invested over Rs 200 crore in the project. Meditab
Specialties has approached the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court,
challenging the "verbal order" to stop construction. The controversy
is not going to die soon.
