CAG says will look into SEZ land acquisition

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has trained its guns at the controversial land acquisition aspect in special economic zones...

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has trained its guns at the controversial land acquisition aspect in special economic zones (SEZs),the new engines of growth that seem to have lost steam now. It had only last year lashed out at the government for revenue slippages to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore from SEZs.

The CAG has decided to look into procedures governing land acquisition by SEZs. We will look at everything related to SEZs ab initio,including the land acquisition Bill, Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai told The Indian Express. He said the CAG had suo motu decided to scrutinise this aspect and was not responding to any complaints.

In its earlier report submitted in Parliament last March,the CAG had said that the government had to forgo revenue amounting to around Rs 2,000 crore from SEZ units,on account of domestic sales being treated as export earnings. Now,the auditor intends to look afresh at procedures governing land acquisition and allotment.

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Land acquisition for SEZs has been mired in controversies. In fact,in some states,it has become an election issue. At some places,locals rose in protest against what they termed as either forceful acquisition or exploitation by offering much lower compensation. The role of state governments in land acquisition also came under fire.

Perhaps,the bloodiest battle against land acquisition was fought in Nandigram in West Bengal,where the state government resorted to armed intervention to acquire 10,000 acres from villagers for Indonesia-based Salim Group. In Goa,the state government had to scrap all SEZ projects to put an end to a long-drawn public agitation.

In Maharashtra,the fate of the 10,000 acre-Navi Mumbai SEZ is in a limbo more than six months after the referendum went against the promoters. The state government later said that such an exercise (referendum) will not be repeated elsewhere in Maharashtra. In northern India,farmers rose in protest against the proposed 25,000 acre SEZ in Haryana,with estimated investment of about $30 billion.

Recently,in the wake of downturn and slump in demand,realty major DLF wrote to government for de-notification of five IT/ITES SEZ projects.