Buddhadeb criticises Centre for SEZs

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday demanded a clear-cut, unambiguous and uniform policy for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) with emphasis on two points – attracting advanced technology from foreign countries and promoting exports from India.

COIMBATORE: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday demanded a clear-cut, unambiguous and uniform policy for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) with emphasis on two points – attracting advanced technology from foreign countries and promoting exports from India.

Briefing reporters on the penultimate day of the six-day Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) here, he said the Union government had made a “mad rush” for SEZs and he saw no virtue in setting up 400 SEZs in the country.

“There should be some restriction on setting up SEZs. There should be some ceiling on allotting land for such zones and the government should ensure that it is not used for real estate or put to other uses. In West Bengal also we have four or five SEZs and another four or five are going to come up. We have kept 63 per cent of our land purely for agricultural purposes and 23 per cent was open to setting up industrial projects.”

He said that foreign companies should not be allowed to invest in retail trade and the field should be left open for the big Indian companies who have the capabilities in the area. “There has to be a regulation in this field also, so that the interests of small traders and businessmen are protected,” he added.

On the performance of three Left-ruled States — West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala — Mr. Bhattacharjee told journalists that the party Congress was critically evaluating the performances of the State governments who have achieved a remarkable success in implementing land reforms. “But much needs to be done in the social sector where we need more funds for better education, health care and social care schemes,” he added.

Answering a query on the political-organisational report, he said one of the major tasks outlined in the report was launching a “rectification campaign against all wrong trends.” The Central Committee will prepare an updated document for the campaign.

“The CPI(M) is a party of values, social norms, morality in public life and we want to keep the politics free of money and muscle power and criminalisation,” he added.

Responding to another query, Mr. Bhattacharjee said that inner party democracy was thriving in the CPI(M) and “party delegates” were the real powerful persons. “No individual in the party is powerful enough to make or undo things,” he said. ( The Hindu )