BJP faults UPA's Special Economic Zone policy

Hyderabad, Aug 5: Maharashtra BJP unit vice-president Kiriti Somayya today alleged that the UPA Government at the Centre had degraded the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy formulated by the previous NDA Government into a large-scale land-grabbing measure.

Speaking on 'Workshop on SEZs' organised by the party state unit here, Somayya said the UPA Government had sanctioned 400 SEZs across the country. ''Instead of turning India into one of the leading economic powers, the SEZ policy was transformed into a real-estate business,'' he alleged.

He said many real estate companies which had no track-record in manufacturing had now become SEZ promoters. The Centre permitting the promoters to retain 65 to 75 per cent of allotted land for non-processing purposes had turned the policy into a ''land-grabbing policy'', he charged.

Mr Somayya said this was another scandal of the Congress government which in 1990s issued telecom licences to ''all and sundry without any norms''.

Alleging that the poor were being robbed of their agricultural land in the name of the SEZs, he demanded that a reasonable relief and rehabilation policy be implemented.

UNI