After Sunday?s referendum for Reliance Industries? (RIL) MahaMumbai SEZ, the Centre on Monday made it clear that it will not give its approval for the same if the state has compulsorily acquired the land. The commerce ministry argued that if there is compulsory acquisition, there will not be SEZ. Nothing prevents the state government from acquiring land and giving it to RIL if they want to. But the commerce ministry reiterated that it will not declare it as SEZ if the acquisition is compulsory.
The Centre had put a ban on compulsory acquisition of land for an SEZ along with a ceiling of 5,000 hectare. Subsequently, the Maharashtra government has also announced that the land acquisition will not be carried out under duress but asked the project developers to do it mutually. The Centre?s observation is quite crucial after 6,151 people out of the 30,000 farmers have submitted their say during Sunday?s referendum. The Raigad district collector had served land acquisition notices to all 30,000 farmers in 22 villages. The district collector has yet to make the results of Sunday?s referendum public. Sources told FE that RIL had received an inprincple clearance from the Centre for SEZ on 10,000 hectare. However, for a formal clearance from the Centre, it will need land in its possession. According to the state government sources, of 30,000 villagers, nearly 5,925 were primary land owners and others had their names on land ownership extracts.