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| Maharashtra dithers over SEZ referendum results |
| Makrand Gadgil / Mumbai Jan 03, 2009, 00:21 IST |
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Three months have passed, but the Maharashtra government has not been able to finalise its report on the results of the September 22 referendum it had organised in 22 villages of Raigad district that form part of the 10,000-hectare Mumbai Special Economic Zone (SEZ) developed by Jai Corp, a company promoted by Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani's close associate Anand Jain.
The state revenue department is pointing fingers at the irrigation department for the delay. The irrigation department claims it has submitted the inputs required to finalise the report.
Meanwhile, the future of thousands of farmers and Jai Corp, which has invested around Rs 600 crore mostly to acquire land, hangs in the balance. Jai Corp has acquired around 1,500 hectares.
The notice period given to farmers under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act lapses on August 6 and the "in-principle" approval from the central government's SEZ approval boards lapses in June. Around 3,000 hectares of land from these 22 villages has been notified for land acquisition.
A senior state government official said the decision is being delayed because the state government is in a bind. Any decision will adversely impact either the farmers — which is considered politically risky in an election year — or the interests of a powerful industrial house like Reliance.
The crux of the problem is that the central government's SEZ policy of 2007 bars irrigated land from being acquired for SEZs after which activists pressed for 22 villages, which fall under the command area of the Hetavane dam in the Raigad district, to be deleted from the purview of the SEZ. The state government decided to hold a referendum as a result of this protest.
J P Dange, secretary of the state’s revenue and forest department, explained: “Before we finalise our report, we would like to know how many farmers are actually going to get the benefit of irrigation. And the irrigation department has told us it will take time if they have to give a report on every farmer.”
A senior officer from the irrigation department said out of 145 thousand million cubic meters (TMC) of water available in the dam, only 30 TMC is reserved for irrigation; the rest is for drinking water and industrial purposes. This 30 TMC, he added, is available for 52 villages and not just the 22 villages in the SEZ. “Our report highlighting all these facts was submitted to the state government long ago,” he said.
The real issue, he added, is deciding, how priority of the water in the dam should be fixed. The issue is whether the state government is ready to give priority to irrigation over industry.
Maharashtra’s water resources policy clearly gives priority to industrial purposes over irrigation, the official said.
Meanwhile, Ulka Mahajan, convener of the anti-globalisation forum that was at the forefront of the anti-SEZ agitation, insists that the referendum is “overwhelmingly against the SEZ”.
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