Special
Exploitation Zones
By Tejal Kanitkar
& Puru Kulkarni
18 October, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Special
Economic Zones (SEZ) is a pseudonym for a new tsunami let loose on the
Indian working class and peasantry by the Indian State. The bill was
passed with much rapidity and urgency in both the lower and upper houses
and is now called the SEZ Act. With the recent trend in government policies,
this act is not a very big surprise, but by far it is the most blatant
and extreme form of exploitation inflicted on the Indian poor by its
own government. Vandana Shiva, an environmental activist has very rightly
called it the “biggest land grab in the history of independent
India”.
State and Central governments
will together acquire land from people who have been living on it for
generations. Of Course they will compensate those who “own”
this land. No compensation will be given to those who don’t own
it but depend on it directly or indirectly---farm workers. The compensation
given/to be given to land owners will be lower than what they would
otherwise get for the land. Only agricultural land or non-village land
will be acquired---nullifying the need to address the rehabilitation
and resettlement of the project affected. The government will resell
this land to big industrialists/SEZ developers for prices a lot higher
than paid to the farmers, but lower than what otherwise would be the
market prices---a win-win for everyone but the farmer. But why and how
will these people just give away their land for nothing?
The Indian State still harps
on trickle down, which is now widely discredited world over. SEZs will
provide numerous jobs, infrastructure and most importantly “development”
for the village and consequently the villagers---were the farmers asked
if they want this development which snatches away their way of life?
These jobs that SEZ developers are promising will be generated in the
various projects within the Zones. What will these projects be? The
Act mandates 25% of the land to be used for economic activity or cash
flow generating activity. The rest can just be real estate. When the
Government takes 1000 acres of good fertile agricultural land from farmers
and gives it to Reliance, Reliance can build houses or golf courses
on 750 acres of it and it would be legal, as long as the rest of the
250 acres is used to generate economic activity, which could very well
be IT centers and shopping malls. Note that the 25% land has been mandated
for economic activity and not industrial activity, generating jobs for
the-now landless farmers in whatever the SEZ developers decide to build.
It is not hard to imagine the jobs farmers, landless labourers and their
spouses and children would get in IT centers, shopping malls, golf courses
or residential complexes.
The SEZs are “Special”
for many more reasons though. Land grabbing is just one little part
of a bigger scam. These Zones would be alien lands within the Indian
nation---twenty one different Indian laws are inapplicable within the
Zone, one of the most important being the Panchayat law. The very core
of democracy---the right to self-determination, the sovereignty of the
people living in these Zones will be taken away overnight. Almost all
governance of the Zones is the responsibility of the Development Commissioner.
Far from being elected by the people living in the Zones, this person
will be appointed directly by the Central Government. Further, everyone
will need an identity card or a passport to be able to commute within
and stay in the Zone. The farmers/farm workers who once tilled that
very land will now have to show ID cards to walk on it. To top it all,
SEZs have been declared as a Public Utility Service---shopping malls,
recreatation centers, golf courses included! This provision will easily
be exploited to hire and fire workers, crack down on organizing and
restrict all kind of union activity. There will be no respite from unfair,
exploitative business practices that many of the prospective SEZ developers
are known to practice even outside these Zones.
The specialty of the special
Zones doesn’t end here. Everything within the Zone would have
a ten year long tax holiday. There will be no taxes, duties, cesses
on anything within this Zone. No income tax, no import duty, export
duty, no cesses on electricity and water. The resources within the Zone
can be freely exploited by the SEZ developer. Water that belonged to
the communities living there for generations together will now belong
to Reliance, Tata, Bharat Forge, Ispat, Aditya Birla Group and many
such others. Once a state government clears an SEZ it will be obligated
to provide the required resources for the SEZ - most importantly electricity.
There has been no effort
to check the SEZ experience in other countries. The experience in China
has been that of companies wrapping up their industries once the tax
holidays terminate. What happens then? The Indian State waives off all
revenue generating taxes to encourage investment and when the time comes
for the multinationals to pay back, they can just wrap up and leave?
One hundred-fifty Special
Exploitation Zones have already been sanctioned. This means 70,000 hectares
of land is being grabbed as we read this.Two hundred twenty five more
Special Exploitation Zones are waiting approval. This means that 2,74,000
hectares of land will be grabbed soon. The extent of the planned mass
murder and mass displacement is unimaginable.
Tejal Kanitkar
Industrial Assessment Center
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
(413)-545-4216 (Lab)
(413)-687-2090 (Res)
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