Is SEZ really a boon for the farmers?

What has been India’s experience with Export Processing Zones? Why did they not do as well as it was projected inspite of heavy financial incentives? Why has there been such an aggressive government overdrive to bring in SEZ’s into India in such a massive scale?
 
As many as 150 of them have got formal approval. Another 129 have been cleared in principle and nearly 200 others are awaiting clearance.
 
Reliance plans to buy nearly 25,000 acres of land from the Haryana government to set up Rs. 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) multi-product SEZ that will have a cargo airport and a 2,000-mw power plant. Apart from this, Mukesh Ambani, the Reliance Industries Chairman, has bigger plans. He wants to set up one of the biggest SEZ’s in India.
 
In association with the Maharashtra government, he wants to set up two of these zones in an area as large as 14,000 hectares in Navi Mumbai and Maha Mumbai. Both these would be impossible if irrigated land is not allowed to be acquired. Apart from Reliance, companies like Wipro, Infosys, Satyam, Bajaj, DLF and many others are firming plans to set up SEZ's. The SEZ rush is on. In the second week of November, Noida in Uttar Pradesh got the okay for eight SEZ’s.
 
As protests by farmers in various parts of India created a whirr with activists joining in, the government toned its enthusiasm and determination down a wee bit saying that agricultural land would not be taken over to build SEZ’s.
 
United Progressive Alliance chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, categorically said that good agricultural land should not be converted into SEZ’s.
 
Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar who soon will have to face elections for state civic bodies and district councils in Maharashtra echoed the same fact saying that irrigated land must not be acquired.
 
Farmers in many parts near Mumbai and Pune are angry that land sharks that are developers for the SEZ are targeting their land.
 
For politicians, nothing could be worse than anger showing up at election booths. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has already said that he would go slowly on acquiring land for these projects.
 
There is a distinct possibility that many existing manufacturing units would shift base to the SEZ just to escape tax.
 
The SEZ would be a great place for them to park as it would not only be better in terms of doing business but also help them reap huge tax benefits making their profits soar.
 
Many backward states that are underdeveloped will continue to be sentenced to remain so. This could lead to regional imbalances that will throw up complicated problems. NO SEZ for example, will come up in the north-east, which already suffers from the problem of alienation and discrimination.
 
But the fact remains as true as ever-from experiences earlier-that farmers do not know what to do with liquid cash. It is the kind of money they never saw before.
 
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