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
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