Five development commissioners have been appointed for Gujarat’s 60 SEZs, which were all headed till mid-2008 by a single commissioner.
Five development commissioners have been appointed for Gujarat’s 60 special economic zones (SEZs), which were all headed till mid-2008 by a single commissioner, IAS officer Ravi Saxena.
The five officers appointed development commissioner for the different SEZs are Upendra Vashisht, SN Patil, KL Sharma, Maya D Kem, and Ajay Sharma.
The appointments were spurred by the return of Saxena, a 1978-batch officer of the Gujarat cadre, from a deputation to the Centre. Norms mandate that a development commissioner - a highly influential, and some say lucrative, post - be either from an outside cadre or hold a Central posting.
A joint development commissioner of Kandla, Upendra Vashisht, is an officer of the Indian Ordinance Factory Service -1986 batch; he has taken charge as the development commissioner of the Reliance SEZ in Jamnagar.
SN Patil, an IOFS officer of the 1989 batch and a joint development commissioner of Dahej SEZ being set up by GIDC and ONGC, is now the development commissioner of the same region.
The development commissioner in charge of Sterling’s multi-product SEZ near Vadodara will be KL Sharma, an Indian Trade Service (ITS) officer of the 1986 batch. Another ITS officer is expected to take over as the development commissioner of Surat SEZ.
“The posts of the development commissioners of Mundra and Sterling have been made en-cadre, which means no one can be sent there on deputation,” a source apprised of the appointments said. “There are 26 central services such as the IAS, ITS, IPS and IRS. Posts not en-cadred can be held by any official belonging to any of these services.”
The only exception are the posts of development commissioner of IT/ITeS SEZs that are held almost everywhere in the country by STPI directors, who are not civil services officers, sources said. “Andhra Pradesh is the only state where STPI directors are not appointed as development commissioner,” a source added.
“The SEZ Act grants a lot of power to the commissioner of a zone, from approving the establishment of a new unit to levying of duties,” said an expert on SEZs who works with a leading consultancy firm.
A factor leading to the appointment of the new development commissioners was the increase in the number of approved SEZs in the state, from 45 to 60 in little over a year. The number rose before the recession set in, adversely affecting the pace of development. Moreover, business houses were pulling strings in Delhi to have separate commissioners appointed for their SEZs.
The appointment of other development commissioners in the state had begun last year with Adani Group-owned Mundra SEZ getting Maya D Kem, a ITS officer of the 1979 batch.
Later, the director of the Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Gandhinagar, Ajay Sharma, was given the responsibility of development commissioner of all the notified SEZs in Gujarat dedicated to the IT/ITeS industry. These SEZs include the DLF SEZ, Raheja’s SEZ, Vascon City Gold SEZ, Shiv Ganga Realty SEZ and one promoted by Ganesh Housing Ltd.
According to sources in the Union commerce ministry, after the exit of Saxena, Kem has been given the charge of Kandla SEZ, which is the principal development commissioner’s post in the state. “The ITS officer has thus become in charge of all the export-oriented units and non-multi-product SEZs in the state. However, the charge may be temporary,” the source said.
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