The Acquisition of land for establishing special economic zone in India

Abstract

Land, one of the five elements of the earth, a key source of identity, has been a core of controversies in recent scenario, when government initiated steps in acquiring private land for public purpose under the doctrine of “Eminent domain”. The situation become much worse after the enactment of Special Economic Zone, 2005. SEZ and land acquisition are intertwined as large area of land are required for setting up SEZ. SEZ and land acquisition are taking place in a faster pace in our country .On the one side ,state governments are showing large scale interests in setting up of SEZ in their respective states and are competing to attract private ,foreign investment hoping it will help Generation of additional economic activity ,technology transfer ,foreign exchange earnings , boasts export of goods and services by attracting Investment from domestic and foreign sources which automatically generates huge employment opportunity, Creation of infrastructure facilities thus upbringing economic and industrial growth of the state and the nation. On the other side, this received with wide scale protests dissent, uproar, and opposition from the farmers and their dependents on land as their livelihood is put up at stake. It is well accepted that SEZ helps in developing basic infrastructure facilities with world class, which pave way for the overall economic development of the country, but this should not be done by sub serving the interests of the common people .Thus the obligation is imposed on the government to make sure that land acquisition for establishing SEZ is in the best interests of the people at larger scale.

KEY WORDS: Land acquisition, Private property, public purpose, Special economic Zone