** Nandigram **

Nandigram - a rural area 150 Km away from Kolkatta is the hot spot of the nation. West Bengal (WB) Govt had proposed (on paper) to bring a few areas under Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The problem started when people of Nandigram came to know that a few areas of Nandigram too is in the proposed SEZ list. A pitched battle is on till this moment with no resolution in sight. A lot of people have died and a fierce battle is on. Political parties are hell bent upon utilising this opportunity to garner the votes. It is a common knowledge that it is the CPI-M that were against all such attempts of industrialisation throughout the Nation. Now, they are tasting the bitterness of their own medicine.

Without going into who is right and who is wrong - I feel that Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are very much important for any State for faster growth. Reliability on Agriculture needs to be brought down and Industrial growth must be resorted to - to meet the population growth rate. The Govts of various states have no other way than to resort to faster Industrial growth. It is inevitable. So is the protest of the people from those areas whose land would come under threat. People like Karunanidhi would readily give away such growth plans for the sake of remaining in power and for the sake of few hundred votes (as they readily did in the recent past). Giving away such ambitious projects would only be doing justice to the present generation at the cost of future generation. No doubt, it is a choice between devil and deep-sea. But what is Governance that does not think about the future?