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.

 Gorai and Aarey are not the only EPZs (Export Processing Zone) within the confines of Mumbai. One of the oldest EPZ that cropped up in the late 1970s was that of SEEPZ (Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone). It was one of the first eight EPZs to be made into an SEZ when the SEZ Act, 2005 was enacted. It is situated right inside Mumbai at Santacruz, near the airport.

Incidentally, adjacent to the airport, over four lakh slum dwellers have risen up in anger over their proposed displacement. Thirty years ago, the international airport was just a proposal on paper with a fence surrounding the runways and hangars. The area outside, even though believed to be owned by the airport authority, was a veritable swampy jungle. People from the lowest strata of the society, three decades ago, began putting up their shanties on this 270 acres of 'impossible to live' quagmire and laboured for years to make it a place worth inhabiting.

Following the privatisation of Mumbai airports, a new company arrived: MIAL (Mumbai International Airport Ltd.), as a joint venture between AAI (Airport Authority of India) and GSV (a consortium led by a South African Airport Development Authority.) The South African consortium has moved the authorities demanding the ouster of five lakh slum dwellers and demolition of one lakh houses. Are they basically hunting for real estate?

Even as the media goes hammer and tongs against the slum-dwellers, the movement to oppose mass displacement is fast gaining momentum. The area resounds with corner meetings, demonstrations and pamphlet distribution, protesting outside the airport, government and municipal offices.

It is not just the land surrounding the Mumbai airport that the so-called global land- sharks are eyeing.  In the heart of the 'white-gold cursed belt', along the Nagpur-Wardha Road, the state government, despite vociferous protests from the locals and farmers, has decided to go ahead with the formation of yet another 'foreign territory'.  This SEZ along with the proposed massive air cargo hub will gobble over 2,000 hectares of land.

The genetically alloyed white-gold belt tinged red with the blood of the farmers, taking their lives every time the orange orb rises and sets in the horizon, is now facing yet another bolt.  The farmers' last straw of dignity-land — is being weaned away. Government officials have already started going around the villages carrying out surveys of the plots to be usurped. According to activists from Jan Andolan Samiti — a group spearheading the movement in Vidarbha — several groups have already started holding meetings of villagers and explaining the implication of this project to them.

And just outside Mumbai — a satellite town called Dombivli — the authorities intend to swallow 27 villages, so that they can construct yet another SEZ. Going by the grapevine, this SEZ is being formed for the creation of housing complexes.  But then any lopsided development sets a chain reaction in other spheres as well. Though land displacement is the most ostentatious adverse effect due to the SEZ, a not so noticed but equally chilling 'mal-development' is connected with water.

The Maharashtra government has proposed to construct large dams so as to supply water to the SEZs. Thane is one of the biggest districts and boasts of having dense forests with heavy rainfall. The district falls in the south-west monsoon path and makes the region ideal for water-harvesting, but the government is more interested in mega-dams instead of constructing small, ecologically viable dams.

The government is seriously thinking of putting up a mega-dam on the Shahi river, which, according to its own survey, would inundate 20 villages. Ironically, the earlier surveys had proposed the construction of six small dams in the region which would have, in the long run, irrigated small farms of the region. Indeed, Maharashtra Labour Minister Ganesh Naik of the NCP reportedly owns 3,000 acres in the region full of hills, small lakes and forests. The proposed mega-dam would force the Shahi river to swell up and apparently provide water to this chunk of land where the minister is incidentally planning to put up a major film studio. The Krantikari Kisan Mazdoor Sanghathana, active in the area, has found out that scores of peasants have still not got their own names penned on the land deed. This means that the compensation, if and when it becomes payable, might actually go to absentee landlords.

A Shahi Dharam Virodhi Samiti comprising peasants, agricultural labourers and adivasis has been formed to stop the implementation of the mega-dam project. And the usually belligerent Ganesh Naik who had some months ago proposed that no harm would come even if a “few furlongs”, of Mumbai's endangered mangroves are gone to construct a wharf and a marina (a dock for yatchs laced with shopping malls, restaurants and parlours at the Sassoon Docks), was forced to crow recently when face to face with the intense resentment of the people.

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