CPI(M) has uniform policy on SEZs: Karat

Kolkata, Dec. 3 (PTI): Refuting charges that it was adopting "double standards" on special economic zones, the CPI(M) today said it had an uniform view on such projects - that they should be used only for setting up industries and not for speculation in real estate.

"I want to tell the people that ours is an all-India party and therefore, our view on SEZs is uniform for the entire country," CPI(M) General Secretary, Prakash Karat, told a function to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Ganashakti, the party's Bengali publication.

Karat, here for meetings of the CPI(M) Central Committee and Politburo, alleged that hundreds of acres in Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra were being given in the name of SEZs to corporates who are mostly using them to develop real estate and not for setting up industries.

"Our party is opposing this. We want the law on SEZs to be amended to ensure adequate compensation for land-losers and minimise displacement of farmers," he said.

Urbanisation and industrialisation were unavoidable and land for such purposes should be used scientifically. "We will support the scientific use of land as in West Bengal," Karat said.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said though 65 per cent of the state's population depended on agriculture, this cannot be taken as an end in itself.

"Village to cities, agriculture to industry, this is dynamics. We have to bring about industrialisation quickly," he said. "Some amount" of farm land would have to be taken for the purpose.

The government had a "moral obligation" to ensure that an alternative livelihood was arranged for those who lost their land and share-croppers at Singur, he said.