Sufia Tippu
Thursday, 19 October 2006 18:10
IT Industry -
Market
Page 1 of 2
Google Earth is being used by locals to save villages in India. A non-government organization (NGO) has used Google Earth satellite images to counter a state government’s claim that land earmarked for its special economic zones (SEZ) is infertile.
A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a special
duty-free enclave designed to promote foreign investments in a
comprehensive range of economic activities from manufacturing at one
end to trading and financial services on the other in an unfettered
business environment.
Farmers of a small taluka (group of villages), about 100 km from
Mumbai, have used Google Earth in their fight against the state
government’s decision of acquiring 11,000 hectares of land for SEZs.
Aided by activists of an NGO, SEZ Hatao Sangharsh Samiti, an anti-SEZ
group, is using pictures of land in the village taken from Google Earth
as a proof of it being fertile. The local officials, saying that the
same land was infertile, had earmarked it for a SEZ. There are 24
villages that would be affected by the government’s decision.
According to reports, the authorities’ version of the type of land in the taluka is contradictory to what Google Earth showed.
Activist Vaishali Patil said that the local officials had submitted a
report to the state government about the land being infertile and low
in production, but this did not show up on the satellite
pictures.
Latest Headlines from IT INDUSTRY
