Naidu wants all-party meet on SEZs

Vijayawada, Jan 28 (UNI) Senior BJP Leader M Venkaiah Naidu today asked the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government to immediately convene an all-party meeting to discuss the special economic zone (SEZ) issue.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Naidu said such a meeting was necessary as different states were governed by different policies on the issue.

The Centre has cleared 467 SEZs so far and added a rehabilitation policy should be announced with any SEZ application.

Demanding a white paper from the Centre on the modalities of creating SEZs, Mr Naidu said they had become a major issue in the country now with a number of controversies cropping up.

Though the BJP was in favour of creating the zones, the Centre had to keep in mind issues such as not touching irrigated,agriculture and fertile lands for preventing food crisis in the country.

The government should pay three times the market price for those whose lands were acquired for the SEZs and there should be also an allocation of 15 per cent share on pro-rata basis on developoment of the land for the displaced persons.

UNI