Update on Goa SEZ rejection

People living around the Verna Industrial Area say: “We are not averse to industry. But we have experienced haphazard industrialisation at the cost of our local ecology and culture. Jobs have gone to migrants who have strained the local resources,” says Orwell D’Silva, a tribal rights activist.

A great article in InfoChange detailing how exactly Goa rejected its SEZ. Not surprisingly, it started as a grassroots movement. Some great observations on how industry really disrupted local people's lives - causing power outages, destroying the local environment.

“Reading the SEZ Act, we realised that SEZs are fully autonomous foreign territories, like a state within the state, and the government and local bodies have no control over them. The concept itself shocked us. We, the original inhabitants of the village, would suddenly become foreigners on our own land! And those exemptions, breaks and special concessions… it was just unacceptable!” fumes Monteiro.

Moreover, the documents revealed startling legal violations and irregularities within the SEZ projects. For instance, the Raheja SEZ documents showed that the company had not even bothered to submit a detailed project plan; the project application was incomplete and mandatory formalities like the inward slip and company seal were absent.

The play by play account of the article is really fascinating. The dedication of the local community to organize and file through tedious legal documents really paid off.