New Delhi: Slamming the Government over SEZ issue, the Left parties on Thursday termed the decisions on Special Economic Zones as "ad hoc" and said the Government should have waited for the suggestions of the Parliamentary panel set up to look into the matter.
The Group of Ministers (GoM) have decided to put an end to compulsory land acquisition, limited the size of SEZs to 5,000 hectares and increase the processing area of such zones to 50 per cent of the land size.
The parties, which provide outside support to the UPA Government, asked it to "get out of the SEZ obsession" and come up with a "comprehensive policy" on land acquisition and SEZ rules.
"The Parliamentary Consultative Committee is already considering the whole SEZ policy. Then how can the Empowered Group of Ministers take a decision in such an ad hoc manner," CPI National Secretary D Raja asked.
The Government should learn lessons from protests taking place across the country against Special Economic Zones and take a decision considering the ground reality. "What we are demanding is a comprehensive policy," Raja told PTI in New Delhi.
"We do not think that this sort of ad hoc decisions taken by the GoM will help in any away," Raja said and questioned as to what has happened Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's plans for implementing a humane rehabilitation policy.
CPI-M, however, unhappy over the decision to fix the upper limit on land given to SEZs at 5,000 hectares, ignoring its suggestion for a cap on 2,000 hectares, though the party has not come up with an official reaction.
"We are yet to see the text of the decision. We will give a reaction tomorrow," CPI-M leader Nilotpal Basu said when asked about the party's take on the E-GoM decisions.
Left parties have already submitted a detailed note to the Government demanding substantial changes in the SEZ Act and rules, including curtailing exorbitant tax concessions provided for the SEZs, and in the land acquisition policy.
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