Goa SEZ MESS-Unauthorised meet okayed land

SEZ MESS
Unauthorised meet okayed land
Preetu Nair | TNN

Panaji: Not only did the Goa Industrial Development Corporation act in haste to allot plots to the K Raheja Corp Pvt Ltd for an SEZ, but they increased the floor area ratio (FAR) on par with the IT habitat at Dona Paula and even sacrificed plans of setting up a government SEZ to allot 300 acres to Meditab Specialities Pvt Ltd. In addition, though the still ‘under formation’ Peninsula Research & Development Centre, Sancoale, had applied for Export Processing Zone status, SEZ status was conferred. The reason: the ‘government feels it could be an SEZ’.
The list of irregularities goes on. Documents acquired by anti-SEZ activists under RTI reveal that allotment of land to Raheja’s was done at the GIDC board meeting on April 19, 2006, attended by only four members—GIDC chairman Chandrakant Kavlekar, MLA Aleixo Sequeira, Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Nitin Kunkolienkar and Managing director A V Palekar. Other board members, including the director of industries were absent.
A possible explanation for their absence is that they received the notice of the meeting at the time when the meeting was already in progress. Three board members — secretary industries, director industries and chief electrical engineer—acknowledged receipt of the notice with signatures on April 19, 2006 at around 5 pm, an hour after the scheduled start of the meeting.
Going by the industries and labour department regulations this meeting should not have taken place as there was no quorum. The regulations state: ‘four members present will form a quorum provided that at least one of the members nominated under section 4 (1) (d) (in this case industries director) of the Goa, Daman and Diu Industrial Development Act, 1965, other than the chairman is present’. Meditab asked for 250 acres, GIDC offered 300 instead
Panaji: At another BOD meeting on March 9, 2007, it was resolved to approve ‘the proposal to allot for development adjoining open areas and to construct and maintain land under roads to the respective units at the rate of Rs 100 per sq mt’. This was decided as the BOD felt that if the Goa Infrastructure Development Corporation (GIDC) was to develop the open spaces and also construct roads, it would have cost the corporation at least Rs 250 per sq mt.
Therefore to save this Rs 250 per sq mt, they allotted the Rahejas (as per the lease agreement) 1,85,173 sq mts for Rs 100. Had GIDC charged Rs 600 for this area of 7,91,732 sq metres, the same that they had charged for the plot, it would have earned a cool Rs 11 crore and more.
After all approvals were granted to the Rahejas and a lease deal signed on July 25, 2006, in GIDC board meeting held on March 9, 2007, it was decided to increase the FAR to 150, at par with the IT park at Dona Paula. This was subsequently approved by the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department.
If exclusive treatment to Rahejas by GIDC shocks, then there is more.
When Meditab Specialities wrote to the then industries minister Luizinho Faleiro on March 10, 2006 requesting allotment of 250 acres land at Keri, not only did the minister send a note to the GIDC asking it to allot 250 acres to Meditab, but also had a discussion with the industries secretary, wherein it was decided to scrap the GIDCs proposed SEZ, “if the party insists on the larger area then it would be appropriate to consider their request for the entire area of 300 acres instead of 250 acres.”
This is clearly mentioned in the agenda note for GIDC’s March 28, 2006 meeting regarding the Meditab proposal for allotment of land.
And shockingly, though Meditab states that they have sub-leased the plot acquired by them, a letter from the GIDC dated February 19, 2008 states ‘sub-lease by the company of portion of land granted to the company at Keri for SEZ is not available with us’. This despite the fact that if any SEZ developer wants to sub-lease land, they have to inform the GIDC as per the lease agreement.
Further, the third notified SEZ in Goa, the ‘under formation’ Peninsula Research & Development Centre, had applied on March 2, 2006 for the status of an Export Processing Zone. However, it got SEZ status as ‘the government feels it could be a SEZ’. This is recorded in the minutes of the GIDC BOD meeting dated March 28, 2006.
June 13, 2008, The Times of India, Goa Edition