Blinded by SEZs

As the tale unfolds, the big business beginning might not be as rosy as the end. The UPA and the Congresss-NCP know that fully well. Because the farmers in Maharashtra are not going to take it lying down

Hardnews Bureau Mumbai

If the blind lead the blind will both not fall into the ditch? So runs an apothegm. And going by the policies being implemented by the ruling UPA — sans any study or sensitivity about what devastation it would wreak on the masses — the Congress-NCP-led Democratic Front (DF) government in Maharashtra seems to be too keen to prove the adage. Even if it means going about blindfolded and tearing the social fabric of the rural masses.

Not that the Left Front-ruled or BJP-ruled states are far behind the Congress when it comes to legalise Special Economic Zones (SEZ). Notwithstanding the eruption of anger of the people all over the country on the issues of free trade zones, free ports,  coastal exploitation, and the emerging foreign fiefdoms, the DF regime is now toying with the idea of Agro Export Zones (AEZ). Indeed, an AEZ may easily envelope an entire agro-climatic zone, covering an entire district.

Maharashtra wants to win the race of having the largest number of SEZs. Out of the 450-odd SEZs all over the country, the state has 47 formal approvals, 24 'in-principle' and seven with 'passed' notification. Thus, Maharashtra will soon boast of having 78 'foreign territories'. But then, going by the classical law of physics  — 'for every action there is bound to be an equal reaction' — the state is also recording the largest number of people's struggles against the SEZs and similar corporate mega projects which benefit big business and hit the farmer really hard, displacing him/her from his/her land and habitat forcibly.

In July-August, even as the verdant green hills along the coastal belt of Raigad in the Konkan region reverberated with the slogans raised by displaced farmers and labourers against the 'Maha-Mumbai SEZ', a quiet struggle has sparked off the embers of anger among the natives of Gorai beach dotting the outskirts of Mumbai. The Gorai beach, originally a small fishing village, is now one of the most favoured picnic spot. Esselworld, which had earlier managed to take away chunks of land, is eyeing large tracts of land in the area so as to establish an SEZ. The peasants and residents of Gorai village are virulently against the Esselworold's proposed SEZ. The movement led by Krantikari Aawas Sangharsh Samiti, though still nascent, has already held several protests and demonstrations and is growing.

Interestingly, it is not just the fisher-folk who are active in the movement. Even the small-land holding peasants — one of the oldest natives of the islands — have joined hands cutting across all caste and religious barriers. Gorai has a sizeable population of Hindus and minorities like Muslims and Christians. And they seem united in this resistance.

This is not the only SEZ within the municipal limits of Mumbai. In the middle of the National Park, a national reserved forest was first 'dereserved' and then handed over to Royal Palms Developers so that they can form an IT/SEZ.  The developer, soon after acquiring it, constructed huge residential complexes with access roads and special privileges, and doled out full page advertisements to the national dailies. Even as the media went around splashing the green dale township advertisements, a few hundred yards away from the compound wall of this swanky housing locale, children of adivasis who have been staying in the national 'spark jungles for generations, were dying of malnutrition.