No more referendum for SEZ land buys: Deshmukh

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Government, henceforth, will not undertake referendum for land acquisition in SEZs and other mega projects. The referendum process for 22 villages, which had been notified under the Maha Mumbai SEZ was an exception, said the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh.

He was addressing a press conference on Thursday. The promoters of Maha Mumbai SEZ, which include promoters of Reliance Industries Ltd, want to set up 10,000 hectares SEZ in Raigad district. The local farmers of the 22 villages have opposed the land acquisition process vehemently.

On September 21, the district administration carried out the referendum. Mr Deshmukh said that the opinions of local farmers were registered in the 22 villages only because their villages were falling in the command area of the Hetawane dam.

In future, such processes would not be undertaken for other projects and SEZs as Maharashtra already has a land acquisition policy.

Raigad’s District Collector is yet to submit his report on the referendum.

Despite repeated questions by media persons, Mr Deshmukh was non-committal on the exact date when the findings of the report would be made public.

He said that one more committee has been appointed to consider the troubled Dow Chemicals project of setting up R & D lab near Chakan, Pune. To examine the various issues, the two committees have already been set up by the State Government.

The project has run into rough weather as the local residents have opposed the project over pollution fears.

Dow Chemicals through its step-down subsidiary, Dow Chemicals International Pvt Ltd, had plans of investing $100 million in Chakan to set up a global R&D centre. It had signed an MoU with the State Government in October 2007.

Sharing information about his recent visit to Europe, Mr Deshmukh said the State has been able to attract Rs 2,000 crore investment from the European companies. MoUs with eight companies were signed during the visits, he said.