Raigad Peasant Revolt
http://otheraspect.freewebpage.org <http://otheraspect.freewebpage.org/> Raigad Peasant Revolt Aseem Srivastava THE FARMERS of Maharashtra's Raigad district are waiting with a restless enthusiasm. After endless hunger strikes and people's protests, they had tried something new. Rarely has an anti-Sez people's movement reached the halls of the Supreme Court. Sometime this month the court is expected to hold a final hearing that will determine the fate of over one lakh farmers in Raigad - whether their paddy fields will be converted into the world's largest privately developed SEZ, or whether they will be allowed to retain their land. In 2003, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd had submitted a proposal for setting up a multi-product SEZ in Raigad across 14,000 hectares of Maharashtra land (an area the size of Chandigarh) in 45 villages in Pen, Panvel and Uran tehsils. An investment of Rs 40,000 crore and jobs for 20 lakh people were promised. Reliance also claimed its package (Rs 10 lakh per acre and training for a possible job in the factory) for the affected farmers was the best across the country. (A simple survey of other SEZs and industrial projects, though, shows that these promises of employment are rarely met.) As the project gained momentum, the anti-SEZ committee in the area launched a massive agitation, prompting a historic farmers' referendum in September 2008. It was the first time that a public vote of this kind was sought and taken on an industrial/infrastructure/mining project anywhere in the country. Regardless of its outcome, it set a valuable precedent on ways of seeking consensus on the usage of land being taken over on the pretext of public interest. Full Article at http://otheraspect.freewebpage.org <http://otheraspect.freewebpage.org/> _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
