Gaur endorses Congress SEZ stand

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and current Industries Minister Babulal Gaur today supported the Congress's stand on use of agricultural land for Special Economic Zones (SEZs), saying farmers were not being adequately compensated after their land was acquired.

Gaur, a minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Madhya Pradesh government, is on a visit to Punjab to woo investors to his state.

He endorsed the Congress's stance on the SEZ issue and said prime agricultural land should not be diverted to non-agricultural use.

"Congress has taken the right stand of not allowing the diversion of agricultural land for industry use as farmers are generally not adequately compensated whenever their land was acquired," Gaur told reporters here today.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi had said agricultural land should not be acquired for non-agricultural use in order to safeguard farmers' interests.

Keeping in mind the interests of farmers, the Madhya Pradesh government had not allowed the acquisition of fertile land to set up SEZs, and only barren land would be allotted for the purpose in the state, Gaur said.

Madhya Pradesh is setting up three SEZs on its own at Bhopal, Gandhinagar and Indore. Talking about the total investment coming into the state, Gaur said by 2008, the state would implement projects worth above Rs 100,000 crore in several fields including textiles and oil refinery.

Projects around Rs 16,000 crore were being implemented under centre-sponsored schemes while rest of the investments were conceived by the state on its own, he said.

Gaur said entrepreneurs from Punjab had committed Rs 5,000 crore worth of investment in Madhya Pradesh, particularly in textile sector.