By IANS,
New Delhi : The government will not approve any Special Economic Zone (SEZ) if state governments acquire or hope to takeover land compulsorily, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said Friday.
Pawar told the Rajya Sabha that states had been advised that in case of land acquisition for SEZs, first priority should be given to waste and barren land.
If necessary, single crop agricultural land could be acquired, he said in a written statement in response to a question from Rudra Narayan Pany.
If a portion of double cropped agricultural land has to be acquired, especially for multi-product SEZs, the same should not exceed 10 percent of the total land acquired for the project, he said.
“Acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural use in the projects may be kept to the minimum,” the minister said.
“Multi-cropped land may be avoided to the extent possible for such purposes and acquisition of irrigated land, if unavoidable, may be kept to the minimum,”
Pawar said state governments had been told to earmark lands with low biological potential such as uncultivable land, land affected by salinity and acidity, for non-agricultural development activities.
He pointed out that total agricultural land had remained around 182 million hectares across the country over the years.
However, agricultural production had increased from 208 tonnes in 2005-06 to 234 tonnes in 2008-09.