Happy

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) would hold an anti-SEZ rally in Kolkata on May 25 to extend support to people of Nandigram and Singur.

The rally was to protest against the Central and State Governments for using the SEZ Act 2005 and Land Acquisition Act 1894 to "reverse" land reforms and initiating "corporate landlordism", CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, who was here to attend a convention, told reporters yesterday.

The convention was part of CPI (ML)'s initiative at spearheading a countrywide campaign demanding complete scrapping of the SEZ Act and strict implementation of land reforms and rural employment measures.

The Kolkata rally would also mark the 40th anniversary of the famous 'Naxalbari peasant agitation', he said.

Replying to a query, he said that the party was not against development, but the "model of industrialisation of the 21st century cannot be a xerox copy of the 19th century."

The developmental model must be subject to rigorous environmental benefit analysis and cost analysis. It should generate rural employment too.

"India can ill afford a development model that is an elitist model, benefiting a few," he said.

The creation of SEZs only had resulted in transfer of capital from non-SEZ areas to SEZ areas, leading to government forcibly acquiring agricultural land for SEZs and releasing current industrial land for real estate developers.