Goa's Movement Against SEZs has expressed shock over the statement made by the Secretary of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Board of Approval for SEZs, Mr G K Pillai, who has accused the Government of Goa of not taking any steps for the last six months, to close down the SEZs and that the Goa Government has even asked for this year's lease rent of land from some developers. In a letter written to the CM today, the convenor of GMAS Matanhy Saldanha suspected that some games are being played and that the government is not displaying its seriousness on the matter. He pointed out that Pillai said that since the Goa Government has not done any paperwork, some developers have recently received environmental clearance too. Saldanha further said in his letter "GMAS respects your promise to the people of Goa. However inspite of your assurance that you would hire the services of the best council, it was the local advocate who represented the Government and when questioned by the High Court as to what is the decision of the Government, he had nothing to state except to say "the court may decide', which virtually means that the Government of Goa is surrendering to the SEZ promoters. This is not a statement expected from the Government which has promised to scrap all the SEZs in Goa including the notified ones'. GMAS, in the letter, has requested the Government to take up the matter with the Union Ministry immediately "to reprimand' the Union Secretary, G K Pillai for going to the press on this issue and also make sure the Government appoints the best legal council as promised by the CM during its last meeting with him. Our Margao reporter adds: The SEZ Virodhi Manch has said the NGO knew all along that the Goa government was taking the people of the state for a ride about the SEZs being scrapped in the State. Manch convenor Charles Fernandes has said that if the government was serious it should have officially withdrawn the Goa SEZs policy, which was notified in June 2006 rather than taking a delegation to the Centre and convincing them that the state government is against SEZs.