The government can well be self congratulatory about the willingness of SEZ promoters to have an out of court settlement with GIDC and get back 70% of the plots illegally allotted to them. But the GIDC needn’t have had to chase 70% of 38 lakh square meters only if it had strictly followed the policy towards unutilised land and taken plots back rather than keep transferring them, often illegally and due to political pressure.
Mr Parrikar himself had said that the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) scam was to the tune of over Rs 400 crore and had lodged a complaint with the director general of police to file a first information report (FIR) against Pratapsingh Rane, Luizinho Faleiro, GIDC Chairman Babu Kavlekar and others. “Let the GIDC file the same complaint with the documents they have, to the police”. He also said that as chairman of GIDC he wanted to bring the corporation back to proper shape and to make it functional.
He did say that there were three options before him to get the land back. One is going to court (which is already in progress), second is to file a criminal investigation, and third, to go for transparent across the table negotiations.
What the government will achieve via the third option is to get 70% of the land back. But is that good enough? If freeing land is the primary objective, then it should be freed from those who are holding on to them. As far as SEZ land is concerned a criminal investigation should have been underway with the serious purpose of nabbing those who supervised the fraudulent allotment. This process cannot be done away with it in lieu of negotiating with SEZ developers.
As the BJP term nears completion, bringing the corporation “into proper shape and making it functional” remains a dream and an unfulfilled promise. The GIDC still functions as an arm of the government, with the board completely subservient to the Chief Minister’s office.
In the past three years the GIDC has only weakened as a body. This process will not cease as the Investment Promotion Board has virtually taken over every decision making of the industries department. They are the ones who not only clear projects but notify investment zones without any scope of opposition. They are not even bogged down by any land act of the state.
Call it by any name – investment in Goa can only take shape if land, power water and infrastructure is looked at as a whole rather than as a sum of its many parts. It is only then that the investment climate can improve. What is happening now is the exact opposite. Any land which an industrialist is “interested” in is marked for a price, even if the land is an orchard with no infrastructure in place to support industrial activity.
The GIDC should work towards creating self sufficient manufacturing hubs, not to be confused with logistic hubs, with “plug and play” infrastructure. Getting back only 70% of illegally allotted land for SEZ’s is therefore no big deal.
