The Hindu Business Line : States to acquire land only from willing sellers for SEZs

New Delhi May 18 Land owners willing to sell their lands for special economic zone (SEZ) projects to State governments could do so on their own, with the Department of Commerce clarifying the position.

The Empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) on SEZ stipulated on April 5 that pending applications for SEZs might be processed for in principle and formal approvals and notifications subject to the proviso that the State governments would not undertake any compulsory acquisition of land for such SEZs.

Highly-placed sources in the Government told Business Line here that a clarification in this regard is being circulated to all members of the eGoMso that their concurrence is obtained for clearing the confusion.

Voluntary sale

Once this is done, States could go ahead with land acquisition from those who voluntarily sell to the States. The onus is on the States to adduce signed documents from the owners of the procured land with details of the transaction terms and a certification disclosing the owner's concurrence.

The sources further said that the earlier decision banning compulsory acquisition by the State was meant for cases where the owners were compelled to part with their land. Where the land was acquired with the full backing of the States, the ban would not apply retrospectively, they said.

Land size

The total land area in 237 formal approvals granted SEZs till date is 34,510 hectares out of which over 50 approvals are for State Industrial Development Corporations/State Government ventures, which account for 17,800 hectares.

No fresh land acquisition supervened in any of these cases. The land already available with the State governments or State Industrial Development Corporations or with private companies has been utilised for this purpose, the sources said, adding that the total land area proposed in 166 in-principle approvals given so far is roughly 1,34,587 hectares. This includes 56 multi-product SEZs, they said.

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