New Delhi: Despite the caution sounded by the ruling Congress party in Maharashtra over the possibility of a flare-up like in Nandigram in West Bengal, the Maharashtra government has turned down Centre's proposal to scale down the size of Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone.

"The Centre has received the reply from Maharashtra government stating it was not possible to reverse the decision of State Cabinet which had approved the size of the SEZ," an official source told a news agency.

The Centre had suggested to the state government to reduce the size of the SEZ coming up in Raigad district from 10,000 hectares to 5,000 hectares. However, in its reply to the Centre, the state government has insisted on allowing 10,000 hectares to the Reliance SEZ.

According to stipulations, a multi-product SEZ must be spread over a minimum area of 1,000 hectares without an upper limit having been specified.

After protests in West Bengal, even the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded there should be a limit to area that an SEZ can occupy.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had earlier said: "First the buyers will have to strike a deal with the sellers... And then the issue will come up before the Cabinet sub-committee. Its only after the committee gives the go ahead the land will be acquired."