In the midst of the controversy over the Special Economic Zone policy, particularly after the Nandigram firing incident, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday conceded that the government has been exposed to certain problems that could not be dismissed, but asserted that the policy has come to stay.
"These are decisions which are in many ways irreversible. If there were gaps in its design or in its implementation we should halt a little bit," Singh said at the India Today Conclave when asked if the government was planning to overhaul the SEZ policy.
But the cost of delay was going to be much less then the cost that would arise if wrong policies were "bulldozed regardless of human, social and economic concerns," he said.
"I do believe that we should address these concerns if we want the policy to succeed in the long run," he said, replying to questions after his speech at the conclave in New Delhi.
The policy on SEZs has come under a lot of flak from not just the opposition parties, but a number of economists, non-governmental organisations, and farmer leaders as well.
The government has been under intense pressure on the policy, especially after 14 people were killed and nearly 100 injured when police opened fire on villagers protesting acquisition of farm land at Nandigram in West Bengal for the proposed SEZ of Indonesia's Salim Group.
Making it clear that the SEZ policy has come to stay in the country, he said the government was formulating a humane and just policy on resettlement of land oustees.
"SEZ, as an instrument of economic policy, has come to stay. But in the process of implementation, we have been exposed to certain problems which cannot be dismissed. It is the strength of our democracy," he said.
The prime minister said if the government found any fault with the SEZ policy, it would make necessary changes. "If we find there are some flaws in our policy, we can set in motion a mechanism to redress those gaps," he said.
Singh asserted that a "more humane, more effective and a more just policy" with regard to the resettlement of land oustees was in the process of being formulated. Pending the finalisation of such a scheme, there was some delay in going ahead with the announced policy of the government on SEZ.
The Board of Approvals in the Union commerce ministry, the nodal agency for SEZs, has so far given final approval to 237 such zones and in-principle nod to another 166. However, approvals have been kept on hold for the past few months.
In a bid to address some of the concerns, the government had early this week put the onus of rehabilitating the displaced people on SEZ developers.
The prime minister also said: "India is a democracy and democracy sometime seems to be fickle-minded." But he believed that democracy was the strength of the country.
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