SEZ plans: Boon or bane

The government is to consider 100 SEZ plans in the areas of automobile manufacturing, textiles, garments, pharmaceuticals, and other industries. These will generate over 5 lakh jobs, and will bring in investments of over 1,00,000 crores in the next three years. This sounds absolutely great.

The article also says that the areas to be built-up have already been identified, and together stretch over 210 million square feet. This however brings to mind the rural areas that will have to be displaced in order to have this scheme go through. But we all know that right from the Rourkela Steel Plant, Nalco, Hirakud, Indravati or Rengali dam project, the people who had lost their homes to the projects are yet to be settled. Protests were made in Orissa against steel plants, but many tribal protestors unfortunately lost their lives when the police turned violent.

The answer is hard to find unless other systems like the judiciary function properly, and ensure that the funds meant for rehabilitation are utilized properly. Other than this, there are always environmental hazards to take care of. Recently, a coke bottling plant was accused of consuming too much water, to the extent that neighboring farms started drying out because of lack of irrigation. Governance is a highly organic system. No one policy decision can be considered in isolation, but it's affects on other things must be taken into account as well.