New Delhi, September 29
A petition was today moved in the Supreme Court challenging the decisions of some states, including Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and West Bengal, for establishing special economic zones (SEZs) by acquiring agricultural land from farmers, saying that it violated their right of livelihood.
A public interest litigation (PIL) moved in the apex court primarily made Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal as respondents, besides the Centre. It alleged that the states were forcing farmers to sell their land to hand it over to big business houses.
Advocate Manohar Lal, who moved the petition, said under the law the government could acquire land for any public purpose, but setting up of SEZs was meant only to serve the business interests of industrial houses, and, therefore, any acquisition of big chunks of farmland for handing over to them was illegal.
The PIL had listed acquiring of 1,000 acres in Singur near Kolkata for handing over to TATA for developing an SEZ, 150 sq km agricultural land by Maharashtra for the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries, 2,500 acres for the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance group for a power project in Dadri by the UP Government whereas according to the petitioner only 700 acres were actually needed, and thousands of acres near Gurgaon by the Haryana Government for Reliance.
Besides, it alleged that thousands of acres of fertile land were acquired from farmers of seven villages in Ghaziabad district for distribution to several industrial houses by the Uttar Pradesh Government.
