New Delhi, March 19:

India will “refine” its policy on the creation of controversial special economic zones, a minister was quoted as saying Monday, after 14 protesters died in police gunfire last week.

“The SEZ policy will be refined in consultation with the state government, the farmers who own the land and industrialists,” the Press Trust of India cited Home Minister Shivraj Patil as saying in Bangalore.

Protesters in Nandigram — a village 120 km south of Kolkata in eastern India — were killed Wednesday when police opened fire in the bloodiest demonstration yet against state government plans to buy land to set up the zones.

The shooting deaths led to a one-day general strike in the communist-ruled state of West Bengal where Nandigram, the proposed site for a chemical industry hub backed by Indonesia’s Salim group, is located.

Patil told reporters after opening a hospital in Bangalore, capital of southern Karnataka state, that the federal government has an “open mind” on the policy of setting up SEZs, PTI reported.

The zones are meant to be privately run enclaves with world-class infrastructure and tax breaks to attract foreign investment.

The West Bengal government ordered police to break a blockade by villagers at Nandigram which had been a no-go area for authorities since 11 people died in protests there against SEZs in January.

The unrest in January led the federal government to suspend plans for SEZs, and last week’s violence prompted West Bengal’s ruling party to announce the proposed Nandigram zone would be scrapped.

The latest violence has renewed debate over whether farmland should be used for industry in India, where some two-thirds of the billion-plus population live off agriculture.