Proposed Special Economic Zone rolled back,farmers rejoice

“We are happy that the government did not carry on with this project,’’ said Satav who is one of the major shareholders in the area. He is now mobilising other farmers for a proper plan to increasing farming activity by making use of the water resources in the area.

Whle the gazette notification had come out on November 5,it is only now that implementation is taking place.

“The land reserved for the project stands de-notified and the farmers can use their land,’’said a senior MIDC officer. Although the names in the seven-by-twelve extracts were not changed,the farmers who were prevented from use of their own land for the last two years now are free to start any activity.

“It is 1,800 hectares and the farmers have won the agitation as it is against the SEZ rules to acquire land without the consent of the farmers,’’ he added. Circle officer M Ghadge said that the farmers will get back their extracts which have their names.

“With the overall proposal earlier marked out for the proposed SEZ,these farmers were issued notifications under the MIDC act. All this stands scrapped,’’ he said. Zilla Parishad member Ram Dabhade too had supported the movement and had led the agitation.

“We were successful in stopping the project only because the farmers were very sure that they did not want to give up their irrigated land for industrialisation. Most of the areas have mangroves and lots of sugarcane crop cultivation. The farmers depend on this and they did not want to trade it for a one-time amount,’’ said Dabhade who himself had two acres in the project.

A stay order was issued in November 2007 and the status quo of the SEZ was maintained for the last two years.

While the process of de-notification would take a month’s time,SDO for the land acquisition Jayashree Katkare from Haveli taluka said that there was some delay but they would speed up the process.

This is the first time a SEZ proposal has been rolled back in Maharashtra following a protest from farmers.

The notification has actually been released by the state government on November 5,2009,but the SDO only got it recently.

The SEZ,was a joint venture between the Videocon and Maharashtra State Industrial Development Corporation.

Videocon pulled out from the project but the land remained in the name of the MIDC and the government will now remove MIDC’s name to enable the original owners to cultivate or use the land for any other purpose.