Chiru tells YSR to learn from Gujarat

Hyderabad, Sept. 29: Praja Rajyam supremo Chiranjeevi on Sunday joined issue with Major Industries Minister J Geetha Reddy over development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and advised the Rajasekhara Reddy Government to take a cue from Gujarat.
 
"Let them visit Gujarat and see what the State Government there is doing. The Gujarat Government is playing the role of a facilitator not a broker in the promotion of SEZs," he said.
 
The strongly-worded statement, perhaps the first from him, came when reporters asked him to respond to Geetha Reddy’s remarks that he had better visit West Bengal before commenting upon the SEZs here in the State.
 
In Gujarat, industrialists purchased land directly from farmers for setting up SEZs while the State Government merely developed the infrastructure, Chiranjeevi explained.
 
"It’s a peculiar situation in Andhra Pradesh where the government is acting as a broker and acquiring land for rich industrialists at the cost of poor farmers," he alleged.
 
Pointing out that the SEZ Act clearly specified that farmers, whose lands were acquired for setting up trade zones, should be made stake-holders in the respective projects, the starturned- politician said, "the onus is on the government to ensure that affected farmers get their due. It can’t acquire land at throwaway prices from farmers and sell it at exorbitant rates to industrialists. It should share the profit thus accrued with the farmers." On the continuing suicides of powerloom workers in Sircilla, the megastar sought to know if the State Government had any answer. He called upon the workers not to lose heart and promised to bring light into their lives, if voted to power.