No SEZ on fertile land: Sharad

Hailing the Maharashtra government decision to do away with the Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone in Raigad and allowing farmers to utilise their land the way they wished,Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav said here on Sunday that it was high time other SEZs floated in fertile areas were also scrapped. “There is a conspiracy to dispossess farmers of their highly productive lands and turn them over to business people in the garb of SEZs,” Yadav said.

Large tracts of farm lands along national highways from Delhi,according to him,had been grabbed in the name of dysfunctional SEZs. He demanded their restoration to farmers and said a stringent law was needed to protect the interests of the peasantry. He warned of a food crisis if the country failed to check fertile land being put to non-agricultural use.

When asked about the apology tendered by NDA working chairman L K Advani to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the issue of black money,Yadav responded with a counter-question: “What is wrong with it after her denial (about any accounts held by her or her family in foreign banks)?”