Panaji, June 15 (IANS) Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat Monday said the state government has through a cabinet decision formally scrapped a controversial special economic zone (SEZ) policy.
Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting, Kamat said: “We have decided to withdraw the Goa SEZ policy 2006. You can draw whatever inferences you want to.” Kamat has been under pressure to articulate the government’s stand on the issue.

The state government under sustained public pressure over the last two years, was forced to shed its support for the SEZs in Goa, scrapping nearly 12 out of the 15 proposed to be set up in the state.

The government, however, has been unable to convince the union ministry of trade and commerce to denotify the three remaining SEZs promoted by Meditab Specialities Private Ltd (123.2 hectares), Peninsula Pharma Research Centre Pvt Ltd (20.36 hectares) and K. Raheja Corp Pvt Ltd (106 hectares), which have now approached the Bombay High Court for relief.

Earlier this month, despite repeated pleadings by the state government to the union ministry for trade and commerce to denotify the controversial SEZ projects, the SEZ Board of Approval had on the contrary allowed promoters K Raheja Corp Pvt Ltd more time to build their SEZ.

On June 12, a delegation led by Kamat and two Congress MPs Shantaram Naik and Francisco Sardinha, met the new union Trade and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma urging him to expedite the process of denotifying the remaining three SEZs in Goa.