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ShareBangalore: A host of activists and academicians held a day-long review meeting on a public audit done on the Mangalore Special Economic Zones (SEZ) at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB). The Centre for Public Policy at IIMB hosted the session, which saw participation from eminent activists like Medha Patkar and Aruna Roy.
Defining the SEZ as Special 'Exploitation' Zones Medha Patkar said, "We are all prepared to re-create Shanghai and Singapore here. These SEZs are declared as foreign territories within the state. These are being implemented at the cost of everything including local and national interest. This needs to be condemned."
According to Aruna Roy, most cases of land acquisition were done illegally and people were forced, threatened or coerced to give in. "In Mangalore, we did a people's audit and found that there were people who were noteven aware of the fact that their land had been acquired. The special economic zone will have adverse impacts on Mangalore's environment and will also create areas of misery and unemployment. When the people protest against it, government will jail them painting them as Maoists or Naxals," she said.
The audits have found that 20% of the land in Mangalore would be utilised for SEZs and Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs), said Aruna.
"The land mafia is on the rise. They are growing unrestrained and there is no transparency in their dealings. As a result, there will be violence in unexpected places," she added.
This meeting was part of a series of public audits done on SEZs andPCPIRs that are being created across the country by academicians and civil society members.
