What lies in store for other SEZs?

What lies in store for other SEZs?

KOLKATA: Singur showed the way, Nandigram is burning. Guess what is in store for Baruipur, Bhangar, Kulpi and Salbani.

While the ruling CPM is struggling to make up for loss in its support base at Nandigram, the Krishi Jami Bachao Committee is planning block level committees in South 24 Parganas to resist the "government offensive".

Farmers here can at the most give up their land for shifting the district headquarters to Baruipur, but won't sacrifice an inch for the Salim project, said Kartick Sardar of the Krishi Bachao Committee.

The ruling Left Front is also a divided camp. LF partners have had enough with the 'big brother', CPM. They are not going to give a free hand to the chief minister anymore.

They want a detailed discussion with land map and all before giving a go-ahead to SEZ projects. The CM also has his compulsions. He must complete land acquisition at Nandigram by September 5.

Or else, there is a possibility that the "in-principle SEZ status" conferred on the proposed chemical hub there, will be withdrawn. The "in-principle nod" is valid for one year only.

Caught between the two polarities, Alimuddin Street is yet to launch its political campaign in support of the land acquisition. It has realised by now how difficult it is to make farmers turn into workers, as the CM has been saying.

The change-over could be even more difficult in South 24 Parganas as the Jamaat-e-Ulema Hind had hinted. The defiance was palpable in Kolkata on Monday.

Never before did Trinamul Congress activists try to enforce the bandh as they did on Monday. They blocked cars at Gariahat, smashed window screens of state buses and put up impromptu blockades on rail tracks.

Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/What_lies_in_store_for_other_SEZs/articleshow/1101498.cms