Bishnoi seeks information on SEZ under RTI Act

Chandigarh, Aug 30: Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi today sought information about the government equity in the Reliance promoted Special Economic Zone project, under Right to Information Act.

The Congress leader filed an application before the Senior Public Information Officer, HSIDC, at Panchkula, near here, seeking information to four questions pertaining to the SEZ, a joint venture between Reliance Industries Ltd and Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation.

Mr Bishnoi said the HSIDC consulted IL&FS Infrastructure Development corporation on the 1700 acres of land at Garhi-Harsaru in Gurgaon district, which was acquired by the Corporation to develop on its own.

''Was IL&FS given the mandate to go into the pros and cons of developing the land on its own instead of transferring it to the RIL-HSIDC SEZ joint venture?,'' he asked. He has sought all correspondence, including file notings, between RIL, HSIDC and IL&FS in the matter.

He said since the HSIDC decided to get into a joint venture with the RIL as a commerical business venture what methods and policies were used to derive maximum benefit for the people of Haryana through the HSIDC.

Mr Bishnoi sought to know the value assigned to the land, measuring 1700 acres, which has been transferred to the RIL-HSIDC Joint Venture.

Mr Bishnoi asked whether HSIDC or RIL got any agriculture, environment impact study done in the 25,000 acre SEZ project, which is coming up in Haryana on fertile cultivable land, as it will ''severely affect the foodgrain productivity in the state''. He has sought findings of the study with file notings and all correspondence in the matter.

UNI