No rules to check illegal practices in iron ore-rich Jharkhand
Folklore has it that when iron ore explorers first came to Jharkhand, they were surprised to find tribesmen using axes made of iron. When asked about the source of the iron, the tribesmen pointed to a hill and called it Noamundi, meaning “that hill” in their language Ho.
Rich and unprotected reserves of high-grade iron ore, including premier quality blue dust, have made this small town every steel giant’s dream. But the blue dust has changed the colour of the landscape to red.
Noamundi is now the hub of large-scale illegal mining. There are no rules here.
Mining is easy—all one needs is a crusher machine and labour that is available at Rs 40 a day. Transporting the ore is even easier.
An open secret Officials of the state’s mining and transport departments, including the Indian Railways, are aware that millions of tonnes of iron ore are transported from this belt, but there are no measures to check this. Until May 2008, there were no limits on transporting any amount of ore.
READ THIS INSTITUTIONAL PROMOTION OF THEFT
On May 12, the Indian Railways introduced a Wagon Loading Freight Rule, where the railways refused to book iron ore without seven official papers, which included factory licence, certification from the pollution control board and the central excise department.
The rule also has provisions to facilitate easy transportation of illegal iron ore.
If one doesn’t have the seven documents, one can always pay three times more to get the ore transported. “It is difficult to differentiate between legal and illegal iron ore,” said A Purty, goods clerk at the Noamundi railway station.
“Why should we be concerned about transportation of illegal iron ore when there are no rules to differentiate the ore.” He added that the average transportation of ore ranged between 57,000 tonnes and 70,000 tonnes a day.
Purty’s lack of concern is no surprise considering that the Chakradhar-pur railway division has earned rewards for record loadings of iron ore. Noamundi, in West Singhbhum district, is under the division, which saw an increase in per day wagon loading from 6,970 wagons to 7,415 wagons.
The division was awarded the Govind Vallabh Award in 2006 for increasing revenue by 49.5 per cent within a year.
The recent boom in iron ore prices has also made Noamundi a favourite destination among steel plants in China. Nearly half of the illegal mined ore finds its way to Paradip port in Orissa for export. Every night, nearly 5,000 trucks carrying iron ore leave a red trail in Noamundi.
Stealing from the thief
The trucks mean business for villagers, who climb these slow moving trucks, collect ore and throw it off the trucks. They sell the ore to dealers or small steel plants. Villagers manage to rummage one truckload ore in three days. Any attempt by truckers to stop the villagers is retaliated with blockades.
R N Prasad, mining officer of West Singhbhum, finds himself incapable of stopping illegal iron ore trade. “Yes, there is rampant illegal mining in Noamundi. International racketeers export ore and there is no system to check that. We do not have any figure on how large the racket is, but iron ore worth crores of rupees is transported from Noamundi,” he said.
There is shortage of manpower and vehicles in the district mining office. With no armed personnel, the mining department carries out raids with police’s help. In the past three years, it has carried out more than 104 raids and seized scores of crusher units, but the effort has yielded no results.
REFERENCE: DOWN TO EARTH MAGAZINE
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
THE JEREMIADIC TIMES OF SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES
THE JEREMIADIC TIMES OF SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES
A lot has been said and seen in the ongoing debate over SEZ like their utility, importance and impact on the lives of countless people throughout the country and a public outcry has been raised over the callous manner in which rehabilitation of the displaced has been handled.
We have never had an appreciable track record as far as handling the delicate issues are concerned so really this does not come as a big surprise but yes the scale on which it has been allowed to happen is unprecedented. Further the government’s devil may care attitude reflected across party lines shows that the country’s leadership does not care for the ordinary citizens in whose hands has the power of the constitution been vested.
SEZ have been hailed as the panacea for several years of gross neglect of the country’s infrastructure as they are expected to build the basic infrastructure through the development that comes through the industries, a highlight of the industrial revolution but while this has worked well in countries that have followed a capitalist model from the very beginning it may well spell doom for a country that
a. Harbours staggering inequalities not only in incomes but skills as well
b. Has a huge proportion of illiterate people who can be primary targets for exploitation
c. Has a filthy human rights record as far as child labour is concerned
d. Has a human development index ranking of 114
e. Has corruption levels that are only better than Haiti, Togo
The idea of beautiful India even today is one of lush greenery and expansive stretch of paddy fields for many.
Such a place is Dhinkia in coastal Orissa where people are fighting a pitched battle against POSCO (Pohang steel company) that is bent upon of acquiring highly productive land and establishing a steel plant that would forever alter the landscape of that area for the worse that is for sure as this area is a part of the elephant east west corridor that extends up to Assam. The government there is showing remarkable insensitivity to the legitimate demand of the people to throw out POSCO from the area but the government is employing goons to evict people from the land on which their very existence depends.
The 4004 acres of land that POSCO needs is a mosaic of brilliant green betel leaf plantations, soaking wet paddy farms, cashew and coconut grooves. The sand and the sweet water below is any farmer’s delight. The 3000 plots of betel bear a bumper harvest for the farmer every day.
Already farmers are unhappy with the increasing water allocation for several industries along the coast. The POSCO plant requires 12000-15000 crore litres of water and all of this will come from reservoirs meant to irrigate fields.
Last year witnessed protests in the Sambalpur region where the waters of the Hirakud were supposed to irrigate the paddy fields but have ended up supplying water to industries than farmers. The question that the farmers here are asking that why take fertile, multi crop land for the purpose of industrialization when the Supreme Court has already declared in a judgement that only barren, unproductive land is to be made available for industries under the SEZ banner.
The bottom line however is that these are not even remote areas as they are within 125 km of the capital. This village’s plight is today the status of several areas in the country where in the name of development the environment and livelihood of several people mostly farmers is being conveniently swept under the rug and with it the future of an entire generation is being doomed. Take the land out of the hands of a farmer and he is reduced to the status of an unskilled labourer, this conventional wisdom is being overlooked.
I do not intend to say that industrialization spells only doom but even mismanaged good can cause only damage and this case only exemplifies this adage.
The Chinese lesson:
The very country that established Asia’s 1st SEZ today is showing the doors to several SEZ and is cancelling all the freebies that it had extended to all MNC’s that it once it welcomed with open markets and relaxed labour laws.
Here the concept has ended up creating greater inequalities thereby causing more damage in the process. Mao Zedong propounded the idea but today china seems to disagree with Mao’s wisdom. It has been seen in case of china that SEZ have ended up widening the inequalities that already existed.
For instance east of the yangste kiang a number of industries have cropped up but on the north, little or nothing has taken place also the environment there has taken a beating as the water of the river has turned a pale yellow and the entire area has been denuded of vegetation.
It has also been seen that MNC’s end up taking away 90% of profits and the remaining is spent on wages hence the country loses on both fronts i.e. environmental and capital, this has been dubbed as the flight of capital.
The Indian analogy:
In the state of orrisa development is taking place at the cost of nature something that has of late become more of a trend.
Especially along the eastern belt of the state smelters have come up at an alarming rate in blatant violation of regulations which has been aggravated by the displacement of thousands of tribal whose land has been taken up for quarrying and a myriad of other purposes solely aimed at decimating the soul of nature.
The exclusivity of the concept of SEZ itself reeks of inequality and further strengthens the premise that exclusion can never be sustainable or logical to achieve development.
A lot has been said and seen in the ongoing debate over SEZ like their utility, importance and impact on the lives of countless people throughout the country and a public outcry has been raised over the callous manner in which rehabilitation of the displaced has been handled.
We have never had an appreciable track record as far as handling the delicate issues are concerned so really this does not come as a big surprise but yes the scale on which it has been allowed to happen is unprecedented. Further the government’s devil may care attitude reflected across party lines shows that the country’s leadership does not care for the ordinary citizens in whose hands has the power of the constitution been vested.
SEZ have been hailed as the panacea for several years of gross neglect of the country’s infrastructure as they are expected to build the basic infrastructure through the development that comes through the industries, a highlight of the industrial revolution but while this has worked well in countries that have followed a capitalist model from the very beginning it may well spell doom for a country that
a. Harbours staggering inequalities not only in incomes but skills as well
b. Has a huge proportion of illiterate people who can be primary targets for exploitation
c. Has a filthy human rights record as far as child labour is concerned
d. Has a human development index ranking of 114
e. Has corruption levels that are only better than Haiti, Togo
The idea of beautiful India even today is one of lush greenery and expansive stretch of paddy fields for many.
Such a place is Dhinkia in coastal Orissa where people are fighting a pitched battle against POSCO (Pohang steel company) that is bent upon of acquiring highly productive land and establishing a steel plant that would forever alter the landscape of that area for the worse that is for sure as this area is a part of the elephant east west corridor that extends up to Assam. The government there is showing remarkable insensitivity to the legitimate demand of the people to throw out POSCO from the area but the government is employing goons to evict people from the land on which their very existence depends.
The 4004 acres of land that POSCO needs is a mosaic of brilliant green betel leaf plantations, soaking wet paddy farms, cashew and coconut grooves. The sand and the sweet water below is any farmer’s delight. The 3000 plots of betel bear a bumper harvest for the farmer every day.
Already farmers are unhappy with the increasing water allocation for several industries along the coast. The POSCO plant requires 12000-15000 crore litres of water and all of this will come from reservoirs meant to irrigate fields.
Last year witnessed protests in the Sambalpur region where the waters of the Hirakud were supposed to irrigate the paddy fields but have ended up supplying water to industries than farmers. The question that the farmers here are asking that why take fertile, multi crop land for the purpose of industrialization when the Supreme Court has already declared in a judgement that only barren, unproductive land is to be made available for industries under the SEZ banner.
The bottom line however is that these are not even remote areas as they are within 125 km of the capital. This village’s plight is today the status of several areas in the country where in the name of development the environment and livelihood of several people mostly farmers is being conveniently swept under the rug and with it the future of an entire generation is being doomed. Take the land out of the hands of a farmer and he is reduced to the status of an unskilled labourer, this conventional wisdom is being overlooked.
I do not intend to say that industrialization spells only doom but even mismanaged good can cause only damage and this case only exemplifies this adage.
The Chinese lesson:
The very country that established Asia’s 1st SEZ today is showing the doors to several SEZ and is cancelling all the freebies that it had extended to all MNC’s that it once it welcomed with open markets and relaxed labour laws.
Here the concept has ended up creating greater inequalities thereby causing more damage in the process. Mao Zedong propounded the idea but today china seems to disagree with Mao’s wisdom. It has been seen in case of china that SEZ have ended up widening the inequalities that already existed.
For instance east of the yangste kiang a number of industries have cropped up but on the north, little or nothing has taken place also the environment there has taken a beating as the water of the river has turned a pale yellow and the entire area has been denuded of vegetation.
It has also been seen that MNC’s end up taking away 90% of profits and the remaining is spent on wages hence the country loses on both fronts i.e. environmental and capital, this has been dubbed as the flight of capital.
The Indian analogy:
In the state of orrisa development is taking place at the cost of nature something that has of late become more of a trend.
Especially along the eastern belt of the state smelters have come up at an alarming rate in blatant violation of regulations which has been aggravated by the displacement of thousands of tribal whose land has been taken up for quarrying and a myriad of other purposes solely aimed at decimating the soul of nature.
The exclusivity of the concept of SEZ itself reeks of inequality and further strengthens the premise that exclusion can never be sustainable or logical to achieve development.
Friday, January 2, 2009
THE MODEL OF UNSUSTAINABLE AND PLANNED DEPRIVATION......
this piece should not be discounted as yet another raving by an anti corporate ideology....infact one needs to get beyond the debate of pro and anti corporate and think about what is best for society and the environment at large.
the moot point is that getting into this debate of pro and anti and taking stances is not going to improve or address any thing, the status quo shall remain and by choosing not to react we set a bad precedent and end up condoning all injustice being meted out to people.
let me simply open up by stating that we all talk of sustainable development but do we really know and understand the term because in the name of discussion all that results is rhetoric and no concrete action
let me refer to the latest development that is sweeping through coastal india albeit very quietly but just as gale winds start quietly only to end up as cyclones the current situation has every ingredient required to escalate into something that we shall not be able to handle.
the fact is today corporate interests have become so short term and goal oriented that the ends justify the means used...typical machiavellian tendencies on display
this approach has been criticised by everyone...noone says that industries are bad but every idea needs to be properly understood and implemented and all stakeholders need to be given due recognition and importance. it makes logical sense for any approach to be lasting and profit making only when the environment is given due importance, one cannot go about destroying the environemnt and claim to be sustainable at the same time. here let me refer specifcally to the coastal management zone act that talks about sustainable developemtn but the practises that it encourages along the coastlines can barely be deemed as sustainable, since when did establishing chemical plants that dump their wastes in the sea become sustainable or for that matter SEZ along the coast, dredging activities, sand mining and even nuclear reactors. if sustainable development happens in the manner as stated above the livelihoods of millions of fishermen is about to be lost foreever, it will not end at this however because these damaging acts will destrpy the marine life across the coasts and make the areas more susceptible to tsunamis as more of the mangrove forests keep getting cleared.
a similar trend is unravelling in the amazon where large tracts of pristine rainforests are being cleared in the quest to develop bio fuels and reduce green house emissions but the act of deforestation itself releases stored carbon into the air thereby ending the validation behind such a concept...just have a look at the below ststs to get a clearer picture
this use of soft power has by and large been very effective in running roughshod over several legilations and allowed extensive maipulation to the central tenets of the legislation.
we therefore witness large scale displacements of indigeneous people without adequate compensation in the name of development....the model of development was always meant to be inclusive but the current practises hinge on exclusion as a starting point for sustenance of projects which is a myth..unfortunately ecological preservation and respect for human sensitivities and culture are parameters that are conveninently overlooked...
the emergence of the concept of CSR is a case in point itself...why was the need for CSR felt if all was so good with these corporates..the very fact that they invest in CSR is justification of the premise that the current scheme propogates imbalance and such initiatives are taken up to mitigate them but then it is often a case of too little and desperately late...
but then i feel it is not the fault of these corporates rather the times we are in that give us little or no time to reconsider our actions...in other words we are so overwhelmed by the speed trap that we no longer know who we are and what do we stand for...what is emerging is an identity crisis that is going to hit the conscience of these very people who have annihilated in the name of development and destroyed in the name of creation....
as the roman emperor calgassus once said after his defeat at the hands of greeks....they come in hordes and lay waste to an oasis of hope..the greeks called it pax romana which means an even deal but this is even worse...
are the corporates listening or have they posotioned their ivory towers so far away that even the light of reason shall take aeons to reach!!!!
can these people see the tears yet presume them to be aberrations
can they not see the loss of hope and the sullen eyes of generations that would otherwise have lived with a twinkle in their eyes......
can they or wont they......if not its time to make them see, feel and experience the pain that deprivation is associated with.....
i have picked my flag against them......wont you?????
the moot point is that getting into this debate of pro and anti and taking stances is not going to improve or address any thing, the status quo shall remain and by choosing not to react we set a bad precedent and end up condoning all injustice being meted out to people.
let me simply open up by stating that we all talk of sustainable development but do we really know and understand the term because in the name of discussion all that results is rhetoric and no concrete action
let me refer to the latest development that is sweeping through coastal india albeit very quietly but just as gale winds start quietly only to end up as cyclones the current situation has every ingredient required to escalate into something that we shall not be able to handle.
the fact is today corporate interests have become so short term and goal oriented that the ends justify the means used...typical machiavellian tendencies on display
this approach has been criticised by everyone...noone says that industries are bad but every idea needs to be properly understood and implemented and all stakeholders need to be given due recognition and importance. it makes logical sense for any approach to be lasting and profit making only when the environment is given due importance, one cannot go about destroying the environemnt and claim to be sustainable at the same time. here let me refer specifcally to the coastal management zone act that talks about sustainable developemtn but the practises that it encourages along the coastlines can barely be deemed as sustainable, since when did establishing chemical plants that dump their wastes in the sea become sustainable or for that matter SEZ along the coast, dredging activities, sand mining and even nuclear reactors. if sustainable development happens in the manner as stated above the livelihoods of millions of fishermen is about to be lost foreever, it will not end at this however because these damaging acts will destrpy the marine life across the coasts and make the areas more susceptible to tsunamis as more of the mangrove forests keep getting cleared.
a similar trend is unravelling in the amazon where large tracts of pristine rainforests are being cleared in the quest to develop bio fuels and reduce green house emissions but the act of deforestation itself releases stored carbon into the air thereby ending the validation behind such a concept...just have a look at the below ststs to get a clearer picture
- 300,000 hectares of amazon rain forest destroyed over last six
- World wide investment in bio fuels rose from 5 billion dollars to 38 billion over a period from 1995 to 2005 and is expected to top 100 billion dollars by 2010
this use of soft power has by and large been very effective in running roughshod over several legilations and allowed extensive maipulation to the central tenets of the legislation.
we therefore witness large scale displacements of indigeneous people without adequate compensation in the name of development....the model of development was always meant to be inclusive but the current practises hinge on exclusion as a starting point for sustenance of projects which is a myth..unfortunately ecological preservation and respect for human sensitivities and culture are parameters that are conveninently overlooked...
the emergence of the concept of CSR is a case in point itself...why was the need for CSR felt if all was so good with these corporates..the very fact that they invest in CSR is justification of the premise that the current scheme propogates imbalance and such initiatives are taken up to mitigate them but then it is often a case of too little and desperately late...
but then i feel it is not the fault of these corporates rather the times we are in that give us little or no time to reconsider our actions...in other words we are so overwhelmed by the speed trap that we no longer know who we are and what do we stand for...what is emerging is an identity crisis that is going to hit the conscience of these very people who have annihilated in the name of development and destroyed in the name of creation....
as the roman emperor calgassus once said after his defeat at the hands of greeks....they come in hordes and lay waste to an oasis of hope..the greeks called it pax romana which means an even deal but this is even worse...
are the corporates listening or have they posotioned their ivory towers so far away that even the light of reason shall take aeons to reach!!!!
can these people see the tears yet presume them to be aberrations
can they not see the loss of hope and the sullen eyes of generations that would otherwise have lived with a twinkle in their eyes......
can they or wont they......if not its time to make them see, feel and experience the pain that deprivation is associated with.....
i have picked my flag against them......wont you?????
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