It will affect biodiversity: Aruna Roy

BANGALORE: Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy has said the Mangalore region had astonishing greenery and bio-diversity that would all be destroyed if industry and petrochemicals were permitted to acquire agricultural land for development.
The state government, she said, must consult local democratic institutions at the panchayat level before taking any decision on the Mangalore Special Economic Zone that is planning industry on big chunks of fertile land.
Speaking at a meeting on SEZs with NGOs, intellectuals and academics at IIM, Bangalore on Tuesday, Roy, social activist and thinker, said: "I've had a visit around the Mangalore region and I am astonished by the greenery and biodiversity of the region. You cannot recreate such beauty and richness in any way. Industry and petrochemicals will just destroy this God's gift to the state. Let the government be rational and shelve the project in the interest of one of the richest green regions in the country and the world." Roy said democratic decision-making was crucial. "The state government should not go ahead with the SEZ in the Mangalore region without proper consultation of local people and constitutional bodies. The government must respect the local sentiment to avoid possible conflicts between agriculturists, industry and the state," she said.
The activist pointed out that facts mattered a lot. "We are conducting public audits to generate all facts concerning SEZs. We will place it before the people and let them decide what they want. The feedback and testimonies we have received so far, however, show that local people don't want the SEZ. There is great anxiety among farmers over losing land, their only source of livelihood. There is the feeling that any compensation would not make good the loss of land. People also tell us that the police have been very harsh in dealing with them. We suggest the government take a softer, consensual approach to the issue and deal with people democratically," she added
Democratic movements, she said, in different parts of the country were coming to the consensus that the SEZ Act had to be repealed. "SEZs have been shelved in different regions. That is a good development, but we want the repeal of the Act too, which places excess power in the state and corporate's hands regarding land acquisition. The state-corporate pact is eating into rich and fertile agricultural land in the name of industrial development. Any move to implement SEZs will harm the land and agricultural equation. That is not acceptable. Hopefully, the state will heed people's voice."