The farmers in the obscure Pen tehsil in Raigaddistrict Maharashtra are preparing for the long battleagainst the gigantic and powerful company theReliance. On June 22, a few Mumbai-based Marathinewspapers carried the news of the demonstrations ofhundreds of farmers against the land acquisition bythe state government for the Reliance company for a10,120 hectare Special Economic Zone (SEZ). There waspolice firing on the rally as some miscreants indulgedin stone throwing and damaging the property, which itwas later found that, was not done by the protestingfarmers.The Reliance company managed to create disturbance inthe peaceful meeting of hundreds of farmers and ourprocess of presenting objections to the LandAcquisition notices to the officials. The company isnervous about the growing resistance by the farmersfor usurping their productive land and thereforetrying to use the police to crush the movement toldArun Shivkar, of Pen Panchkroshi Sheti Bachao Samiti(Pen area Committee for Save the farmland).And as we know the reality of this company and theSEZ, the farmers will drive the company out and takeon the state government also for siding with thecapitalists instead of caring for the farmers fumedGanesh Thakur from the Samiti. Out of 10,120 hectaresland is earmarked for acquisition, 5720 ha. isirrigated from Hetavane dam, and large tracts belongto the salt pans or wetlands, mangrove very essentialsfor carrying capacity and sustainability of this area.The villagers now know fully well they are pittedagainst the formidable adversary the giant Reliance,which has just obtained 25,000 hectares land for itsown SEZ in Haryana, already took the governments inUttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra and even the socalled the Left wing government of W. Bengal. It isspreading its wings in textiles, power, contractfarming, medicinal herbs, sugar industries and retailstores. They realize that the Company has enormoussway over the political, bureaucratic establishmentand the media. This company has been given the largestSEZ in the 42 villages in Pen-Panvel-Uran area, in thename of the activities like manufacturing, trading,services, processing, logistics, repackaging,warehousing etc.This is one of the 24 approved SEZs in the state, bothby the private parties (13) and the MaharashtraIndustrial Development Corporation (MIDC, 11). Thereare other 17 SEZs that are to be given approval (11private and 7 MIDC). These SEZs are part of the morethan 140 SEZs that are earmarked in almost all theparts of the country. According to the Uniongovernments handout, the SEZ is a specificallydelineated duty free enclave and shall be deemed to beforeign territory for the purpose of trade operations,duties and tariffs. In 2000 the Government of Indiaformulated the SEZ policy and in 2005 the SEZ Act wasmade. It came into force from February 10, 2006. Withthis one stroke, the corporate powers have corneredexemptions from almost every tax, while getting theservices of water supply, electricity, usurping thenatural resources, distorting the constitutionalsovereignty of the people.Waiving TaxesThe Maharashtra government formulated the SEZ policyin October 2001, to promote the establishment oflarge, self contained areas supported by the worldclass infrastructure oriented towards exportpromotion. Any private, public or joint company andeven the foreign company can set up the SEZ, whichwould consist of the industrial operations, serviceand trade. Both the policies emphatically declare tocreate the hassle-free environment for suchoperations, that is, exemption from all sorts of taxesviz: stamp duty and registration fees, cess or leviesincluding import-export duties, customs duties, salestax, excise, octroi, service tax, mandi and turnovertaxes. They can import of procure from domesticsources duty free all their requirements from capitalgood to raw materials, spares, packing materials,office equipments, without any license or specificapproval. They can procure/ import goods duty free toset up the units.Most important concession is the income tax benefitunder 80 1A to developers for any block of 10 years in15 years, exemption for income on investment ininfrastructure capital fund and the from electricityduty for 15 years in C, D, D+ areas and no-industrydistricts in Maharashtra and for 10 years in otherareas. They are allowed re-investment of ploughed backprofits and carry forward of losses. The units areallowed establish Independent Power Plants (IPPs), toproduce, transfer and distribute the power, fixtariffs in their own zones without any license. TheSEZ authority, the state government appointee is toensure continuous and good quality power supply andadequate water supply to the SEZs.These units can have 100% foreign direct investment(FDI) in the manufacturing. Off shore banking unitsare allowed in these areas and they are allowed 100%Income Tax exemption on profit for 3 years and 50% fornext two years. Individual investment in SEZ too isexempt from the Income tax. External commercialborrowing up to $ 500 m. per year is allowed withoutany maturity restrictions. The SEZ units enjoy freedomto bring in export proceeds without any time limit andhave freedom to keep 100% of export proceeds in theEEFC account and to make overseas investment from it.According to an internal assessment of the UnionFinance Ministry in 2005, the government had to forgoabout Rs. 90,000 crores in direct and indirect taxesover the next four years on account of the SEZs.Autonomy for Whom?The units in SEZ can sub-contract part of theirproduction process abroad or even to the domestictariff area. The developed is permitted to transferinfrastructure facilities for operation andmaintenance.The SEZs, except those product specific andport/airport based units, must have at least 1000hectares of area to set up SEZ. They have to set uptheir processing units in the 35 % of the earmarkedarea and they have full freedom in allocation of spaceand built up area to approved SEZs on commercialbasis. They are authorized to provide and maintainservices like water, electricity, security,restaurants and recreation centers on commerciallines.The SEZs are made free from the environmental andlabour laws and they are exempted from public hearingunder Environment Impact Assessment notification. Onthe contrary, SEZs are permitted to havenon-polluting industries like golf courses,desalinization plants, hotels and non-pollutingservices in the coastal regulation zone (CRZ). All theenvironmental clearance powers, particularly theclearances required by the Maharashtra PollutionControl Board, are vested in the hands of theDevelopment Commissioner, appointed for theadministrative supervision and solve the problem forthe SEZs.The SEZs have no responsibility to provide employmentto the people in and around the area. Reliance hadclarified that there would be no scope for theemployment for the local people, as most of the jobswill be skilled ones. However, any of the labour lawsand regulations will not be applicable to SEZs. Allthe powers of the Labour Commissioner shall bedelegated to the Development Commissioner of theparticular SEZ and a single point mechanism in SEZswill be provided to give all clearances andpermissions pertaining to industrial safety and otherregulations. The practice of hire and fire will bemade easier and nobody will be allowed to conductinspections without the prior permission of theDevelopment Commissioner of that SEZ. The Maharashtrapolicy aims to further exclude many services from theambit of the Contract Labour (regulation andAbolition) Act. And All industrial units and otherestablishments will be declared as Public UtilityServices under the provisions of Industrial DisputesAct!!The Maharashtra policy declares the SEZs as IndustrialTownships to enable the SEZs to function asself-governing, autonomous municipal bodies. Uniongovernment policy bluntly tells that, Governmentcontrols the operation and maintenance function of theGovernment controlled SEZs. In the rest, operation andmaintenance is privatized.Serious IssuesEven in the neo-liberal and government corridors, thesetting up of SEZs make no sense, as there are alreadymany schemes for promotion of exports like the ExportProcessing Zones, Export Oriented Units Scheme, ExportArea Intensive Area Sub-Plan, InfrastructureDevelopment Scheme for 93 no-industry districts. Theywill loose their attraction altogether once new SEZscome into being. The 47 Software Technology Parkswould suffer a setback; they would become unviable asmany companies would like to shift to the new SEZs.More important is the issue of the large tracts ofland at least 1000 hectares or even 80 hectares tobe given to the companies. According to senior tradeunionist Gajanan Khatu, These SEZs would beprivatized and autonomous townships. Instead of mereSEZs, they are Special Real Estate Zones. These SEZscan be used for anything from trading, entertainment,hotels, and housing projects. All the large builderslike City Parks, K. Rahejas, Hiranandani Builders,DLF, Marathon realty, Pan-India Paryatan, DewanInvestments are given hundreds of hectares.The SEZs will have their own security, operation andmaintenance rules and all environmental and labourclearances vested with the Development Commissioner ofthat SEZ. It is nothing but creating autonomousprivate regions; the local self governments will haveno authority over them, pointed Rifat Khan ofNational Center of Advocacy Studies (NCAS).According to Dr. Mukund Ghare, Director of AFARM,Pune, an organization for sustainable land and watermanagement, when there is a crying need to distributethe scarce water equitably between urban and ruralsectors and between the rich and poor, there is anapprehension as to how much water the SEZs will use?Who will own the water? How it will be used, whenthere is no environmental law applicable to the SEZ?This is nothing but an attempt to privatize water.It is appalling and illegal to permit the tourism,beautification, hotel, ports up to 12 nautical miles(22 kms) in the sea. There is a conspiracy to dilutethe CRZ, regularize the past violations and invite thelarge megatrawlers of the transnational companies. explained N.D. Koli, the Maharashtra leader of theNational Fisherpeople Federation (NFF).It is a government sponsored land grab by the richand powerful. Already serious land related issues ofLand Reforms or restoring the land rights of dali,oreksali lands in Konkan or on Adivasi lands in otherforest-land area. And here the government has beenallotting large tracts of lands, mostly by acquiringthrough Land Acquisition Act and passing it on to theprivate parties, charged Surekha Dalvi, a seniorlawyer and land-rights activist.When the government has been cutting the subsidiesfor the farmers, workers and middle classes, when itcannot assign a fraction of funds for rural employmentguarantee scheme, the public distribution system andgovernment procurement of food grains are beingdismantled, it is becoming clear who the belovedclass of the power holders is, remarked Ulka Mahajan,the national convener of the National AlliancePeoples Movements (NAPM). The people will not takeit lying down. They would unite wage a relentlessstruggle to defeat the forces that are out to snatchtheir livelihood and resources, she warned.Building ResistanceThere is no question of increased compensation forthe land we just do not want to give our land to theReliance, that was the spirit of the meeting held onJune 24-25, hosted by the Samiti and the NCAS, atBardawadi near Pen. The meeting, attended by variousorganizations in Konkan region along with therepresentatives of NAPM, Peoples Political Front(PPF), and Shoshit Jan Andolan resolved to intensifyand widen the struggle against the SEZ, by involvingthe affected people in other parts of Maharashtra andIndia.. A detailed campaign against the Reliancesmoney power and the SEZs as a whole was planned.The peoples movements from various parts of thecountry under the aegis of the NAPM, in the recentlyheld Bangalore convention, have decided to take up theissue of the SEZ and mobilize the nationwideresistance to the creation of the SEZ. Theorganizations made it clear that the issue at thestake was not only the lands and rights of theaffected farmers and other villagers, but the largercanvas of the way the political economy of the nationis being usurped by the corporate interests with theconnivance of the political and bureaucratic elite.They resolved to protect the natural resources of thecommunities land, water, forest, sea-coast; opposethe violation of the laws and regulations and thesovereignty of the people.If the struggle in Raigad gains momentum, it would bea next sign-post, like Plachimada, of the fierceresistance by the people to any encroachment on theirrights, resources and sovereignty and any threat tothe Constitutional democracy in the country. Thestruggle in Raigad will decide to a large extent thefuture trajectory of the larger struggle.
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