here, finally, here comes the news that the government of india's, primeminister's office (PMO) has applied brakes on the SEZ monster.

let's take a quick look at some of the points.

1. india has no rehab policy at all for those who get displaced by dams/mining projects/factories/etc
2. various agencies/states use the old 1895 (yes that's 1895 and no typo) land acquisition law that british formed, to acquire land mostly in forced manner.
3. the new SEZ policy was issued without proper consultations of the communities/NGO's/environmental experts/financial experts/etc and lo and behold all companies started to jump on to it. who would want to miss the party that comes at zero land cost, no taxes, no monitoring, no environmental norms, etc.
4. china, that started SEZ did in a phased manner with a handful of SEZ's. but commerce ministry established SEZ like crazy.
5. there was a real threat that huge lands near urban center's (mumbai, chennai, etc) would be swallowed by real estate giants in name of IT/real estate/biotech SEZ's with the governments playing middle men role of acquiring land by force.

like sunita narain of CSE says, SEZ's will create another india that is not ours.

before any more crazy ideas is being promulgated, let the govt think about its consequences which can benefit only the elite and not the marginalised. SEZ as a concept has to be thought, colloborated and executed on a different level rather than bulldozing in name of development.