SEZ meeting output ........

PEN(RAIGAD): The sylvan-looking Pen town in Raigad district is famous for the Ganesh idols it produces. On September 21 though, this modest tehsil in the picteresque Konkan region will have another claim to fame for not so divine reasons. A little more than 30,000 villagers from 22 hamlets in the Pen tehsils will make known their choice for or against a special economic zone (SEZ) promoted by RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani and his close associate Anand Jain.

If a majority of these villagers say in writing that they don't want to be a part of this multi-product SEZ, the state government will have little choice other than striking off these 22 villages from the SEZ map and in the process heralding in a new trend, which could decelerate the progress of the SEZ bandwagon across the country. And if the majority tilts towards the SEZ, the public hearing could end up discrediting the lobby up against industrial projects across the country. So September 21 could turn out to be the very significant Sunday for the country.

The Mumbai SEZ

Anand Jain, is proposed to come up over 10000-hectares of land which cover 45 villages in Raigad district. Of this, 22 villages in Pen tehsil fall in the command area of the Hetawane dam and the public hearing has been ordered to let villagers have their if they want the SEZ or not. On the basis of written statements that will be filed by around 30,000 villagers, the Raigad collector will make a report to the state government. This report, along with a status report on the Hetawane dam to be submitted by the irrigation department, will help the government take a final call on inclusion or exclusion of these 22 villages. There, however, will not be any 'voting' on Sunday contrary to some media reports.

At the center of the great hullabaloo fairly early in his career in civil service, Raigad collector Nipun Vinayak, in his early thirties, says he does not feel any pressure of the unprecedented moment. "I don't anticipate any violence. But the district administration is fully prepared to conduct the public hearing in a peaceful manner tomorrow. It's not a referendum. It's only a public hearing of a novel kind wherein the government would get hear what the people concerned have to say," Mr Vinayak told ET at his sea-facing Alibaugh office. "We have advertised the proforma of written statement in local newspapers to create awareness. It has been designed in such a way that villagers will have the room to express their views in general as well as specific terms," Mr Vinayak said.

These 22 villages have 5925 villagers whose names figure on the 7/12 land ownership extracts as primary owners. But Mr Vinayak says the government has served notices to all 30,057 villagers who have their names on the 7/12 extracts. "If a family has five members and all of them figure on the 7/12 extracts, all of them will have a say in the process to make the hearing a broad exercise," Mr Vinayak said.

Irrespective of the government proforma, both pro and anti SEZ lobbies are busy circulating their own versions of the document that has to be filled up and submitted to the government. Whatever the text of this document, the villagers will have to sign it in the presence of government officials on Sunday.

Source : economuctimes.indiatimes