Decentralise powers, amend SEZ Act, CPI(M) tells Centre

Coimbatore, Apr 2 (UNI) Giving a clarion call for decentralisation of powers to the grassroots level, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) today demanded that the Centre amend the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act to allow only industries which brought advanced foreign technology and to encourage exports.

Briefing newspersons on the deliberations of the fourth day of the party's 19th Congress here, West Bengal Chief Minister and Politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharya charged the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with always trying to centralise powers by grabbing them from States.

Stating that the party was against indiscriminate setting up of SEZs without any restriction, he said that while allowing the zones, there should be a ceiling on the land allotted to the zones. The party was of the view that a minimum of 50 per cent of the land should be earmarked for industrial development, 25 per cent for creating industrial infrastructure and the rest for other purposes.

The party Congress also adopted a resolution, calling upon the Centre to sever all its military and security ties with Israel as long as it occupied Palestinian land.

''Security and peace in the West Asian region can only be achieved by putting an end to the Israeli occupation, evacuating all Israeli settlements, establishing an independent Palestinian State and implementing the refugees' right to return according to UN Resolution 194 of 1948,'' the resolution said.

The resolution noted that only negotiated peace along these lines could help solve the problem, and not the continuing violence that Israel was imposing on its occupied territories.

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