Union Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said that he was "not anti-SEZ but pro-farmers." He made this statement during inter-action session with media editors and journalists specially invited for participating in the '37th Editors Conference on Social Sector.'

He said that his ministry was working on the new rehabilitation policy that would ensure that those who are being sought to be displaced and whose land is being acquired for a particular project are first given adequate compensation and rehabilitated by the private companies or PSUs before starting the project.

"This applies to the hukam aasmani (natural disaster) and hukum sultani (order of the government). Our ministry has no role in the SEZ. It is the job of the ministry of commerce, but they would have to abide by the rehabilitation policies," said Raghuvansh Prasad.

The minister refused to give direction answer when asked if the farmers would be given a part of the developed area, besides cash compensation, an apartment and a job. "All these components are part of the rehabilitation policy," he said.

The minister declared that his ministry has asked for Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) to implement various schemes in the social sector for the year 2007-2008 from finance minister P Chidambaram. He asked the states to utilize the money allocated to them for various schemes.

He explained that the central government had stopped financial assistance for Indira Awas Yojana to Orissa government for not giving the accounts of money given to the state to provide assistance to the victims of super cyclone.

Claiming that the number of families below the poverty line is going down, Raghuvansh Prasad said that by 2017 poverty would be eradicated from the country. "For tackling problems of unemployment among BPL rural youths, ministry has taken steps for skill up gradation training on large scale for self employment," he said.