Goa’s land allocation policy to SEZs has been indicted for massive irregularities by the Comptroller and Auditor General. The list of violations is more or less a case the fence eating the crop, finds out Himanshu Upadhyaya.
30 June 2009 – In an audit report tabled in Goa assembly during the last week of March 2009, the supreme audit institution – Comptroller and Auditor General of India – has once again pronounced critical remarks on SEZs, this time around on massive irregularities in land allotments by Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) to SEZ promoters.
The main opposition party (BJP) as well as resistance movements against SEZs were quick to grasp the moment putting forward a demand for CBI probe and criminal inquiry. The CAG audit report had probed into land allotments to Dona Paula IT Park on the outskirts of Panaji (2,85,296 square metres), the Quintol Food Park (4,19,000 square metres) and seven SEZs (38,41,000 square metres) as part of the performance audit of government companies.
On closer examination what emerges is an even more worrisome problem. Land acquired in past for ‘public purpose’ remains unutilised and undeveloped for years, and despite this, repeat land acquisition quests were undertaken by the government. Worse, the current legal regime has no space for handing back such land to persons from whom it was acquired in the first place.
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