CAG EXPOSES PROFITEERING IN THE NAME OF SEZs- RELIANCE,ESSAR IMPLICATED IN REPORT.

Several hectares of land acquired for SEZs invoking public purpose were later sold off or used for other purposes. Among the groups that diverted land acquired for SEZs are Reliance Industries and Essar Steel. CAG said that the SEZs of Essar Steel in Hazira and Reliance in Jamnagar, Gujarat denotified an area of 247.522 ha and 708.13 ha respectively.

In case of Sricity in Andhra Pradesh, the audit found that 2070.12 ha of allotted land was not used for the intended purpose. This denotified land was allotted by the SEZ operators to private companies such as Alstom, PepsiCo, Cadbury, Colgate, Kellogg’s etc.

Land appeared to be the most crucial and attractive component of the scheme. Out of 45635.63 ha of land notified in the country for SEZ purposes, operations commenced in only 28486.49 ha (62.42%) of land. Many developers approached the government for allotment of vast areas of land in the name of SEZ. But only a fraction of the land so acquired are notified for SEZ and later denotifications was also resorted to within a few years to benefit from price appreciation.

(source: Times of India)

This is a startling revelation by the Comptroller and Auditor General, thoroughly exposing the greedy corporates and employers. They avail so many other concessions in tax,electicity,water etc in the name of SEZs and are also exempted from the labour laws, cruely exploiting its work force. It is in addition to these, now the profiteering from the land. So long as the government is for them, these are all natural to happen.