Implosion (27 page)

Odisha

Odisha is one of India’s poorest states. though one of the richest in minerals, and its failure to realize its potential is far greater than most other states. Few big mining and metals projects involving bauxite for aluminium and iron ore for steel have been able to start for two decades or more, and large-scale successes are rare. Plans by groups such as Essar, Vedanta, Jindal and Bhushan have hit problems with environmental approvals, or have been involved in controversies over coal mine allocations, though Tata Steel is nearing completion at its once-troubled Kalinganagar site. In total, the state government has signed 93 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with companies since 2000, mostly for the steel and power sector.
³⁰
Out of 50 steel MoUs, only 30, mostly small and medium projects, had been partially or fully completed and they were producing just a tenth of the envisaged 83.66m tonnes per annum capacity by the middle of 2012. Out of 29 power projects, only about six had been completed.

The Odisha bureaucracy is notoriously corrupt and appears to operate with scant concern for the wishes of Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister for the past 13 years, who is consequently not able to fulfil project implementation promises he makes to big investors. ‘In other states, if a company pays up at the top level, it usually gets delivery,’ says Biswajit Mohanty, an environmental activist and freedom of information campaigner, who runs the Wildlife Society of Orissa. ‘But in Odisha, the lower-level bureaucrats ensure that projects are blocked unless they too are rewarded.’

Illegal mining, together with poor environmental protection, is widespread among well-known companies as well as smaller concerns. Tata Steel was among 103 iron ore mining companies asked by the state government in November 2012 to ‘show cause’ why it was exceeding approved production.
³¹
In 2009, Jharkhand-based Rungta Mines, run by Siddharth Rungta, who was then the president of the nation-wide Federation of Mining Industries, was named as a serious violator in reports of illegal mining.
³²
The CAG made more allegations of unlawful extraction of iron ore, manganese ore and coal in excess of approved limits and without prior environment clearances in March 2013.
³³
A commission was set up by the central government in November 2010 to report on illegal mining across the country. M.B. Shah, a retired Supreme Court judge who headed the commission, said in March 2013 that the Odisha state government had ‘taken some steps’ to curb the activities after his commission started work.
³⁴

Foreign groups such as Norsk Hydro of Norway, Alcan of Canada and Continental Resources of the US became tired of costly and frustrating delays in the mid-1990s and left India. Resistance has frequently come from tribal and other communities protecting their homelands, often encouraged and organized by NGOs. It has sometimes been alleged that multinational companies finance these NGOs in order to stem the flow of bauxite into world markets from India and other rival countries. Some reports suggest that local opposition to bauxite mining in the state only began after India started exporting the mineral, thus triggering international interest and resistance.

The indigenous communities are mostly forest dwellers living in remote regions such as Odisha’s mineral-rich central highland areas, which account for about a quarter of the country’s tribal population. Threats to these communities attract social leaders and tribal welfare NGOs, as well as political activists such as Sahu at POSCO, who teach the tribals to speak up for their rights. But while protest movements have become more effective, the government has responded slowly and reluctantly, protecting old relationships and doing little to compensate those who lose their land.

Tribals regard some of the areas involved as sacred – for example, the Niyamgiri Hills where Vedanta Alumina was planning a $1.7 billion bauxite and aluminium project till Jairam Ramesh became environment minister. In August 2010, Ramesh refused to let Vedanta’s joint venture partner, the state government’s Orissa Mining Corporation, start mining. He withdrew the first stage of forest clearance approvals that had been granted in 2008, and also refused a second stage. He did this on the basis of reports by two committees he had set up which highlighted damage both to the area’s biodiversity and also to the Dongriya Kondh tribal community that lived on the hills and claimed that their Niyam Raja deity lived on a hilltop just ten kilometres from the mining area.
³⁵
His ministry also barred Vedanta’s Lanjigarh refinery from buying bauxite from 11 mines in the state of Jharkhand where, Ramesh said, there were no mines with bauxite approvals. He accused the refinery itself of commandeering forest land and carrying out a six-fold expansion without permission.
³⁶
After the rejection of the environmental clearances, the refinery shut down in December 2012 because of a shortage of bauxite.

In April 2013, the Supreme Court put the future of the project in the lap of the gods when, referring to the tribal forest dwellers, it said, ‘If the bauxite mining project in any way affects their right to worship their deity, known as Niyam Raja, in the hilltop of the Niyamgiri range of hills, that right has to be protected.’ It said that the local gram sabha (village council) should decide whether the tribals had religious rights in the area and whether ‘the proposed mining area, Niyama Danger, 10 km away from the peak, would in any way affect the abode of Niyam Raja’.
³⁷

This was significant because it recognised the role of local opinion in determining the future of projects and led to all the gram sabhas voting against mining, which cast further doubt on the project’s future.
³⁸

Notes

1
.   
http://ridingtheelephant.wordpress.com/2007/05/01/special-economic-zones-are-about-people-not-just-development/

2
.   Government of India official SEZ website
http://sezindia.nic.in/about-osi.asp

3
.    Sri City on the borders of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh is one of the best examples of a zone firmly based on business activity but including social and infrastructure township facilities
http://www.sricity.in/

4
.   
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2006-06-20/news-by-company/27437256_1_reliance-haryana-reliance-signs-hsiidc

5
.    ‘Mukesh’s Great Gamble’,
Business Standard
, 15 April 12006,
http://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/mukesh-s-great-gamble-106041501025_1.html

6
.    ‘SEZs: “Farmers must get proper compensation for land”, says Sonia’, 23 September 2006,
http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/India/20060923/459929.html

7
.   
Dr
S. Narayan, then Visiting Senior Research Fellow and Head of Research at the ISAS, National University of Singapore, and a former Finance Secretary and economic adviser to the Prime Minister of India, ‘
The Special Economic Zones in India: An Update’, Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), November 2006, by
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/Digital-Library/Publications/Detail/flots591=0c54e3b3-1e9c-be1e-2c24-a6a8c7060233&lng=en&id=26965

8
.    ‘Reliance SEZ on way out, Haryana govt wants its 1,384 acres back’,
Indian Express
, 18 January 2012,
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/reliance-sez-on-way-out-haryana-govt-wants-its-1384-acres-back/900903/0

9
.   
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/gurgaon-farmers-want-their-land-back/article4327284.ece

10
. Raghuram Rajan, ‘From Paternalistic to Enabling – India needs to adopt a style of government that unleashes the people’s entrepreneurial zeal’,
Finance and Development
, September 2006, Volume 43, Number 3 IMF,
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2006/09/straight. htm

11
. ‘Tata abandons cheapest car plant’, BBC, 3 October 2008,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7651119.stm

12
.
http://ridingtheelephant.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/west-bengal-hopes-for-a-communist-rout/

13
. Asis Kumar Das,
A Timeline of Nandigram (22 August 2005 – 17 June 2008)
, published by
Mazdoor Mukti
(Workers’ Emancipation) on Scribd.com,
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3604739/Nandigram-Timeline-22-August-2005-17-June-2008

14
.
http://ridingtheelephant.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/poor-governance-in-indian-states/

15
. ‘Amidst apologies, Buddha says all’s well on home ground’,
http://www.content.ibnlive.in.com/article/04-Dec-2007politics/amidst-apologies-buddha-says-alls-well-on-home-ground-53581-37.html

16
. Agreement between Tata Motors Ltd., Government of West Bengal and WBIDC, (undated),
http://www.wbidc.com/images/pdf/Agreement%20between%20TML,%20WBIDC%20and%20Government%20of%20 West%20Bengal.pdf

17
. ‘Singur row resolved, Mamata calls off stir: Drama Precedes Guv-Brokered Peace Deal’,
The Times of India
, 8 September 2008,
http://www.epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:LowLevelEntityToPrint_TOI&Type=text/html&Locale=english-skin-custom&Path=TOIBG/2008/09/08&ID=Ar00100

18
. ‘“Clear evidence of rival hand in Singur”: Ratan Tata’,
Hindustan Times
, 6 February 2007,
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1211488401. html

19
. ‘“I hope there is a bad M and good M”: Tata’, PTI, 7 October 2008,
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2008-10-07/news/27720805_1_singur-ratan-tata-nano-small-car-project

20
. ‘Buddhadeb’s Nano new Bengal dream is over’,
Indian Express
, 4 October 2008,
http://www.indianexpress.com/story_mobile.php?storyid=369344

21
. Information provided to JE by West Bengal sources.

22
. Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016, para 2.6.5, Department of Heavy Industry, January 2007,
http://www.dhi.nic.in/Final_AMP_Report. pdf

23
. ‘SC asks Tata Motors to consider returning Singur Land’,
Economic Times
, 11 July 2013,
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-07-11/news/40515178_1_tata-motors-singur-land-tata-nano

24
. Media release on ‘Whose Land is it Anyway?’ Jaipur Literature Festival session moderated by JE, 27 January 2013,
http://jaipurliteraturefestival.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/whose-legacy-is-it-anyway-land-people-and-development/

25
. Audio on Jaipur festival website
http://jaipurliteraturefestival.org/program-2013/27-jan-2013-program/

26
. ‘Green panel suspends POSCO’s environmental clearance’,
Business Standard
, 31 March, 2012,
http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/green-panel-suspends-posco-s-environmental-clearance-112033100038_1.html

27
.
http://www.newageweekly.com/2013/02/police-attack-villagers-to-acquire-land.html

28
. ‘Orissa govt pre-empts land acquisition bill, completes land acquisition for Posco’,
Business Standard
, 4 July 2013,
http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/orissa-govt-pre-empts-land-acquisition-bill-completes-land-acquisition-for-posco-113070400796_1.html

29
.
http://ridingtheelephant.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/posco-on-a-learning-curve-about-india%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Csocial-process%E2%80%9D/

30
. ‘MoU signed projects to go under CAG scanner’, 14 June 2012,
http://www.visionofdate.com/2012/06/mou-signed-projects-to-go-under-cag.html

31
. ‘A Hotbed of Controversy’,
Business World
, 10 November 2012,
http://www.businessworld.in/en/storypage/-/bw/a-hotbed-of-controversy/607520.0/page/0

32
. ‘Mining scam unearthed in Orissa’, CNN-IBN, 27 September 2011,
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/ballerylike-mining-scam-unearthed-in-orissa/188072-3.html

33
. ‘CAG finds illegal mining in Orissa’,
Asian Age
, 27 March 2013,
http://www.asianage.com/india/cag-finds-illegal-mining-orissa-674

34
. ‘Justice M.B. Shah Commission probing illegal mining’, Indo-Asian News Service, 4 March 2013,
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/justice-mb-shah-commission-probing-illegal-mining-to-miss-deadline-338228

35
. ‘It is “no” to Vedanta’s mine project in Orissa’,
The Hindu
, 24 August 2010,
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/it-is-no-to-vedantas-mine-project-in-orissa/article591546.ece

36
. ‘Centre rejects eco-clearance for $1.7bn Vedanta mine’,
Hindustan Times
24 August 2010,
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Centre-rejects-eco-clearance-for-1-7-bn-Vedanta-mine/Article1-591035.aspx

37
. ‘SC leaves Vedanta’s fate in tribal deity’s hands’,
The Times of India
, 19 April 2013,
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-19/india/38673085_1_gram-sabha-alumina-project-bauxite-mining-project