The drive of the governments to take over land from peasants and other toilers and hand it over to big capitalists for setting up special economic zones (SEZs) has been meeting with opposition from toilers all over the country. We print below brief reports of such struggles from west and north India.

The allotment of land in Gujarat's Kutch district for developing the Mundra SEZ would be opposed by villagers whose land were acquired even the Supreme court allowed construction activities, it was announced. It has been acquired by the Adani group, whose chairman differed with the villagers on every point discussed with him, including the questions of grazing land in Jharpara villages and the fertility of the land in Mandvi and Mundra areas. In view of these irreconcilable differences, the residents from Jharpara and about 12 other villages had no option other than resolute struggle to retain their lands and livelihood.

Again on the west coast, residents of the villages of Sancoale, Verna in south Goa and Kerim in north Goa approached the Bombay High Court at Goa seeking a directive from the court to the State-owned Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) to revoke the land allotted by it to the promoters of the special economic zones (SEZs) in their respective areas. The petitions pertain to three notified SEZs — Meditab Specialities Private Ltd., K. Raheja Corporation and Peninsula Pharma Research Private Ltd. It may be recalled that the government of Goa had actually stated that they had withdrawn the application for SEZs in their state, in the face of mass protests, a few months ago, following which the GIDC had apparently “revoked” the allotment of land to these SEZs. The petitioners have termed the land allotment on a 95-year lease as "fraudulent”. The court had posted the matter for hearing on July 18, 2008 when the two petitions filed by K. Raheja Corporation and Meditab Specialities challenging the GIDC decision revoking the land allotment to SEZ promoters would be heard.

Nearer to the national capital, farmers from five villages near Gurgaon — Khandsa, Narsingpur, Mohammedpur, Gadauli Khurd and Harsaru — are opposing the transfer of 1,395 acres of land to Reliance Industries by Haryana State Industrial and

Infrastructure Corporation (HSIIDC) for setting up a SEZ in the region. Farmers have been up in arms against the SEZ to be set up over an area of 25,000 acres from Garhi Harsuru to Badli at the Farrukhnagar-Jhajjar road. The total proposed investment is about $30 billion with more than 10,000 acres for "infrastructure, residential, leisure and entertainment and commercial establishment" with only 6,500 acres outlined for industries. In order to be able to start work on the SEZ, the state government has created a curfew – like atmosphere to quell any protests and resorted to fascist intimidation of the villagers. In early July, 2008, villagers had assembled to protest the construction of a wall by Reliance Industries, which was being done in the presence of more than 4,000 policemen. The police also completely barricaded the main road from NH 8 to Manesar the previous night itself. The police also filed cases against 33 people who are leaders or farmers protesting the SEZ.