Himalayan Industrial Policy: Who benefits and who loses in Himachal Pradesh? R.Sreedhar, Environics Trust

I wrote this a while ago but....

During the last few years, the state of Himachal Pradesh has made significant progress in industrialization of specific pockets. Share in the state’s income from this sector accounted for only 1.1% of the total income of the state in the year 1950-1951 which has now jumped to 17.1% during 2005-2006[1]. The grant of special package by the Central Government has acted as a catalyst in boosting industrial development in the state and increased the industrial investment proposals in the state manifolds. In order to provide infrastructural facilities to entrepreneurs, 41 industrial areas and 15 industrial estates have been developed in the state so far. Most of the industrial areas in the state so far are set up either by the Department of Industries (DOI) or under the provisions of Town and Country Planning Act as Special Area Development Authority (SADA). The state government has set up single window clearance agencies in the state, which are functioning from several locations in the state. The state has been acknowledging the importance of development of industries in the state through their industrial policy statements in 1999 and the most recent in 2004. As per the Industrial Policy Guidelines, 1999 and 2004, there is a shift in the perception of the state government from the existing practice of merely taxing industries to being more facilitative, in order to increase investment in the industrial sector.

Government of India announced a new package [2] of industrial incentives for the facilitation of rapid industrialization of the state of HP. These incentives provide for cent per cent excise duty exemption and income tax exemption for a period of 10 years, coupled with enhanced capital investment subsidy, relaxation in the cost sharing for industrial infrastructure development fund, central transport subsidy etc amongst many other things. In line with these incentives the state government also gave some more incentives to the industry, which would be additional to the existing ones.

Official data shows that the state has got investment of only Rs.6,523 crore, though proposals amounting to Rs.41,205 crore have been cleared. The government has approved 13,195 projects since 2003 when the package was announced. Of these, only 6,356 units have begun production.  Pharmaceutical, food processing, textile, packaging and light engineering sectors have seen most of the investment. 

More than 80 percent of industry is mainly cluttered in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh belt in Solan district only.  A resolution demanding that the package be extended by 10 years till 2020 was passed in the assembly in December last year. In January, the commerce ministry had recommended to the prime minister and the finance ministry that the package is extended till 2013.  Punjab government moved the Supreme Court in December last year challenging the central government's sops to Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand since 2002 for industrial development.  It contended that the 'discriminatory fiscal incentives' in the form of excise duty waiver, income-tax holidays and investment subsidies to industries in the three states had led to mass exodus of industries from Punjab.  Most pharmaceutical units that have set up their units here are from Goa and Maharashtra. Industry experts say if the subsidies are withdrawn, the cost to companies could increase by anywhere between 20 and 30 percent. Further, they would go to other states where there is better infrastructure.

The attitude of the governments and the industrialists is clear that in a capitalist economy the profit of the few can be rationalized at the cost of many.

The Financial Dole

If we take the lower figure of the companies which have already come in and just take the component of “Capital Subsidy” which has a ceiling of Rs 30 lakhs only, it comes to a whopping Rs 2000 crores. Of course, despite these being called back-ended subsidies ie given after the investments have been made we all know that several more would have claimed and the figure could be as high as Rs 5000 crores or that is what the government is already committed to dole out to the companies.  This is an outright give away in cash. Thus for an investment of Rs 6500 crores if industrialists get back Rs 5000 crores in cash what is the need for such industrialization.

It is not that the rest of the money invested is not guaranteed to shower more returns. The tax holidays will add to an enormous amount over this as excise duty and income tax alone will be 40 percent of the gross profits. Few specific companies themselves have reported turnovers of Rs 1000 crores[3]. But even if we take a conservative estimate of Ra 5000 crores, another Rs 2000 crores is given away as tax concessions.

The process of robbing itself and the community to pay investors and promoters is not new or isolated to the industrial sector alone. The infrastructural back up of power is provided with another package of concessions. However, the utility in the State is bleeding hundreds of crores. (see box 1)

  

The contra-banking of power during current summer has created a financial crisis for the state power utility which is running a huge overdraft of over Rs 640 crore. The utility the assets and functions of which have been vested in the government under the ongoing restructuring exercise has been in the red and its accumulated loss has crossed Rs 260 crore. 

Its cash-flow position has worsened as under the contra-banking arrangement surplus power supplied to deficit neighbouring states during summer months will be returned during the lean winter months. It is not receiving the usual revenue from sale of power during summer

The financial health of the utility has not improved despite annual increase in tariff by the state electricity regulatory commission over the past five years. The employees have been claiming that consumers will have to pay more after unbundling as electricity will become dearer. However, the fact was that successive tariff hikes have increased the average sale price of power from Rs 1.90 paise per unit in 2003 to Rs 3.70 paise in 2008.

http://www.4jat.com/article_print.asp?aid=1062&keyword=Aggregate_revenue_requirement&category=News

The State has proposed an Industrial Township Act which is so draconian that there shall be no Panchayat for Industrial Township [4]. If any industrial development area or any part there of is specified to be in the said industrial township then such area can be allowed not to have a Panchayat. As per article 243 of the constitution of India, “Panchayat” means an institution (by whatever name it may be called) of self-government constituted under Article 243-B for the rural areas;

This Act has been accorded overriding effect [5] over provisions of any other Act such as TCPA and Himachal Pradesh Municipal Act, 1994. If such area which is now declared as industrial development area was within the municipal limits or was included in the master plan or zonal development plan under the TCPA or under any other development plan under any other Act in the state then it shall be deemed to be excluded from them from the date of declaration of such area as industrial development area.

This authority along with the Director of Industries is also granted power to issue no objection certificate under the proposed Act if any water, electricity or sewage connection with in the industrial development area is required by any person [6].

UNA Special Economic Zone

The government had announced that 4,000 acres of land adjoining the Swan River would be acquired for the project. However, the answers to the RTI application reveal that 11,500 acres are to be acquired. The government has also said that the land to be acquired is barren and lacks any form of vegetation. I have visited this site and can say with complete conviction that the land in this area is among the most fertile in Himachal Pradesh. Again, the government says that it has bored and is using 3,000 bore wells although including the private ones there are 10,000 bore wells here. The revenue department’s estimate of 7,000 trees in the area is also wrong as there are lakhs of trees here. Initially, the government had said that only the lands traditionally inundated by the Swan River would be acquired. The questions in the RTI application have uncovered a different picture. More than 25 villages supporting a population of nearly 80,000 are likely to be wiped out by the project. Among the villages to be affected are Ambota, Matyalka, Ghananal, Dioli, Nangal Jariala, Bhadrakali, Gondpur Banehra, Nakdoh, and Kailah Nagar. The government had also promised the peasants the best rates in the market for their land. However, it is now revealed that the government has disallowed any new sale deed from taking place. Apparently, the peasants used to make the sale deed in a bid to ensure that the land prices went up and they could drive a harder bargain with the company. The rates offered by the company which will undertake the project, Skil Infrastructure, do not amount to even one-fifth of the price the peasants have got in the other areas as compensation.

December 13, 2008 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

It is therefore clear that the process of dispossessing people of their land and other natural resources and depriving them of many constitutionally guaranteed rights and curtailing institutions of local self-governance is covertly and overtly being undertaken by the State in the name of liberalization, privatization and it is being conveniently spoken about as the inevitability of globalization.

Almost all river segments and over 50,000 ha of prime land and other natural resources including forests, mineral resources and even cheap human resources are being sacrificed at this alter of globalisation.

The 12^th Finance Commission has granted resources for the Himalayan States for the ecosystems services and the base value for the vegetation cover itself is valued at Rs 50,000 per hectare per annum. When we include all the elements of the services provided it could be several lakhs.

Thus the model of industrialization totally negates the critical ecosystem value, destroys local cultures and accumulates wealth amongst the few.

What Himachal Needs?

The Himalayan States and particularly Himachal Pradesh demands the formulation of an industrial policy that intensively promotes decentralised and green growth.

Opportunities are abound with Horticulture, Medicinal Plants, agriculture, decentralized power generation systems, community based tourism.

Essentially these industries that need positive discrimination and if they are encouraged with the right kind of incentives the Gross Value added per invested rupee will be positive and much larger than the short run fly-by-night industrialization which would have devastated the basis for long term sustenance.

Time to Wake-Up

The deleterious effect of the massive change in the ecosystems, displacement and deprivation of people and the poor rate of assimilation of local employees in the industry (under 10 percent as against a stated policy of 70 percent) is a clarion call for change. While the State seems to be trying to extend the current concessions, it is clear that this model only benefits the investors and investment bankers, the owners, the managers, corrupt politicians and other elite while crushing the local people and annihilating the local environment which will have long term implications on the ecosystems and the community. In an era when Climate Change is a widely debated issue, it calls for an urgent change in the industrial policies and the package for promotion should clearly aim at green growth.

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[1] See www.himachal.nic.in/industry  

[2] vide office memorandum dt 7^th January, 2003 GOI, Ministry of commerce and Industry

[3] Pharmaceutical Exporter - AmeriStat Pharma, Inc. Himachal Pharmaceutical Industries - Suppliers and exporters of ... our annual export turnover is around 200 million USD, including pharmaceuticals www.aipharma.com/pharmaceutical%20exporter.htm

[4] This word is used here for the first time. However there is a mention of this word in the Constitution of India in Article 243Q proviso to clause 1 which says Provided that a Municipality under this clause may not be constituted in such urban area or part thereof as the Governor may, having regard to the size of the area and the municipal services being provided or proposed to be provided by an industrial establishment in that area and such other factors as he may deem fit, by public notification, specify to be an industrial township.

[5] Section 22a

[6] Section 28

Do Impact Reports Really Impact?

Environment Impact Assessments is now a travesty of original intent, says Sreedhar Ramamurthi

It was first in 1994 that the Environment Impact Assessment notification was put really into orbit by the government. It was meant to ensure that projects in industrial or manufacturing sectors pass the very basic muster of how much negative impacts such projects bring on the environment, or on people living in ‘affected’ areas.

There were procedures that were established with high diligence. Public hearings as a protocol was established with a proper ear given to communities on such EIA’s as they came to be called. The EIA’s also had to be commissioned among professionals who had expertise in the domain and who would offer objective dispassionate analyses and assessments with objectivity, for the appropriate ministry of the government to decide whether the clearance ought to be given or otherwise.

In the 16 years since, the EIA has become a sad parody of what it was meant to be. Applicant companies have decided to get a ‘dummy agency’ most often. The government has made this part of a mechanical process. It is now seen to be one of many hurdles that need to be overcome to get any project cleared by the government. Even the government’s own machinery has begun to see the EIA as another irritant in the process of getting a project cleared. Adjudicators from within the government who form members of ‘approval committees’ that are intended to understand the import of such EIA’s and the hurt it brings to the ecology and people of an affected area, are themselves people who have looked the other way in many cases over the years where there have been fragrant violation of the basic spirit and purpose of such EIAs.

There have been EIAs that are filed with the government and its various departments including the environment ministry which have been cut and paste from other assessment reports of other projects with not even the basic courtesy of reading it to make the EIA relevant for its own project! For instance, an EIA of a project in Russia has been taken by a consultant for a project in Maharashtra! The EIA Report for the Pala-Maneri Dam prepared by RITES contended that the maximum credible earthquake in Uttarkashi was merely 4.2 in the Richter scale!

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has itself been guilty of releasing environment clearances with the document being a crude cut-and-paste of paragraphs from previous such clearances.

The mindset is clear. Projects have to begin regardless. The EIAs and all that the checks and balances created to ensure that good governance is achieved while industry secures new projects are mere ‘procedural constraints’ that the government and the industry-applicant have to find ways to overcome.

None of them in the entire chain of custodians who are supposed to ensure that responsible diligence is conducted before a project is given clearance is bothered to see whether there is a human face to the damage that would be created in an area. A coal mining project is cleared without any thought to the impact it makes on the people living in that region or the millions of flora and fauna that will necessarily die when such a project is created.

Whether it is a Niyamgiri and Vedanta’s brazen disregard of every people need and of the deeply permanent damage to natural resources, or hundreds of projects where there has already been reported evidence of shocking damage to either people’s health or to forests and soils [and therefore the multitude of rivers and streams], the government and, of course, the culprit company do everything they can to sweep the horrors under the carpet.

From about the time the RTI came in, which was a blessing for all the well-meaning voluntary groups and activists in the non-government sector, there has been even more resistance from the government to offer information of records and evidence gathered by its own departments in the case of such projects where there have been extensive damage to either the environment or the people of the region.

Suppressio Veri Suggestio Falsi

So you have the cruel ironies of a reputed institution of the Government reporting on a project for the exploitation of Coal Bed Methane and on the impact of very deep aquifers of over 20,000 meters of ancient waters from under the complex sub-players of the earth. The report says that the exploitation of water under these deep surfaces does not in any case impact the shallower aquifers between 15 and 300 meters that humans have been using for drawing water! What it does not say is that the earth has taken over a million years to form such ancient waters and we take no more than a few hours to draw them out. What they don’t tell us is that the financial cost of pumping such waters from the far deeper layers of the earth is nothing, but the ecological cost of such upsetting of sensitive ecobalances of the earth will have a deep and profound impact in us in just the next 80 years—let alone the far term future of our civilisation. It seems to be beyond their comprehension, either deliberate or out of ignorance, that those longer term consequences into the next 20 years or 1000 years, are so far-reaching.

For most of these officers in industry or government who are on the ‘other side of the table’ and not of the people or for the people, the scenario is getting to be ‘difficult’. There is a strong icy unwillingness to see beyond the really short term, and the money that they will grab, or a project they will clear.

Many officers and even ministers have gone on record asking for scientific evidence and direct correlation between an action that is taken now to damage an ecosphere while it is so obvious to even a schoolchild that the impact can be horrendous over such long terms of time, of the destruction of a forest or of any ecosystem.

The National Institute of Occupational Hazard is another case in point. It is supposed to be another sentinel offering research evidence that will enhance people welfare and ecological welfare. Recent reports and facts show it to be, sadly, otherwise. In a recent instance, the NIOH is reported to have stalled and blockaded the offering of evidence on the extensive incidence of asbestosis that has occurred in many projects.

They are aware of the damage but do not want to be seen to have been culpable in the clearance of such projects in the past. There are unwritten commands and instructions that come from senior officers, from within the institute or from outside which hamstring the institute from speaking the truth on asbestosis. No amount of RTIs have helped in getting them to behave. They have come up with reasons as flimsy as ‘These are personal health records of individuals, and we cannot give it to activist organisations’. When a voluntary group got afflicted individuals of one area—some 150 such patients who had suffered for some years from the aftermath of the project, with the worsening disease —to put in their application asking for records, the NIOH found another excuse to not offer information.

The RTI has often been called by people to secure startling revelations. The question is, why should there be startling revelations if the government has done its job responsibly and for the people. Why is the government not of the people and by the people?

Sample this: in the 24 years since 1986, the environment ministry cleared over 6,500 projects. After the Environment Impact Assessment notification of 1994, some 3000 projects were cleared.

The story also has been one of complete lack of coordination between the multiple monitoring agencies. There is also an absurd drama of terms of reference themselves being modified much after a project has started, simply to ensure compliance on paper!

The environment ministry officials themselves have admitted in some RTI responses that there is no database on the extent of compliance achieved with the thousands of projects the ministry has cleared over all these years! So what purpose has the MoEF served?

Brownfield Expansion, Greenfield Conservation: A Critical Need

"Sustainable development" implies that economic activity should be designed to create wealth for the use of present and future generations. If natural resources cannot be developed and exploited to create wealth for the nation, the result may be poverty and deprivation[1]. Crisis management soon takes over from sustainable economic development. The conservation of non-renewable resources is an important in the context of long-term future of any country and more so of emerging economies like India. Prof Stiglitz[2] points out how several countries in the wake of liberalization, privatization and globalisation may actually be increasing their GDP while becoming poor on the long-term if the issues of long-term conservation and investments in the improvements of social attributes do not take place concurrently.

In the context of mining, mineral deposits are available to a limited extent no matter how huge is the resource and ideally need to be endowed for posterity. In the past a run-away expansion of `strategic minerals’ did not take place as countries sought to have them for their domestic military needs. Even in our country, Aluminium was considered once such metal. However given the need for improving the living standards and utilising the existing technologies for the benefit of all, resources need to be extracted. There are several ways of ensuring this but the emerging concept of expanding existing areas of extraction and conserving identified deposits is very critical in the context of bauxite in India.

The current reserves of bauxite are distributed between deposits, which are as large nearly 400 million tones such as in Panchpatmali to pocket size deposits of few thousand tones in Ratnagiri Coast. Some of these large deposits are already being extracted. The proposition is that opening up of several new areas involves severe and widespread environmental consequences and social discontent. In the context of the Eastern Ghat Bauxites in Orissa, it makes immense sense in opening up only few areas with large deposits and not `pock-mark’ the entire region with several deposits being opened up. The current market situation of bauxite, with several global players being viable with imports from large distances means that deposits which are within couple of hundred kilometers does not impact the viability of the project.

The case for conservation of mid-sized deposits (~ 50-100 mt) is also important from a medium term economic and technical perspective. The rapid improvement in our technological capability in aero-space will mean that in the next two decades we will have the indigenous capacity to utilize this important element in our industries which if opened up today will be depleted by the time the country needs them and perhaps will not have the choice of the resources.

If we take the case of existing and proposed bauxite-alumina complexes in the Eastern Ghats, the requirement of each company is of the order of 3 million tones per annum. While these could be achieved by opening up several places of smaller deposits it makes ecological and economic sense to restrict to couple of large deposits, some of which have already been opened up.

Such an initiative, where policies enable brownfield expansion and Greenfield conservation will not only enable unhindered development of the industry currently but will also provide the State with options for the future without having to commit all the known deposits to investors.

Mining of bauxite has several adverse environmental impacts, which globally even the Industry concedes[3]. Widespread depletion of resources that are also critical to local livelihoods will only widen the area of community discontent. This will also enable focused attempts at environmental remediation with adequate investments rather than spreading the impact and remediation across the entire region.

The current windfall profits that mining companies and metal industries are having are leading to several players joining the bandwagon. Even in the US when the Oil Companies obtained windfall profits with sudden surge in oil prices, the State intervened to raise additional resources from the companies so that these could be invested in long-term conservation.[4]

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[1] Quashie LAK, The case for mineral resource management and development, UNU

[2] Stiglitz, Joseph, Making Globalisation Work,

[3] International Aluminum Association’s Life cycle analysis clearly indicates how huge quantum of other critical resources, particularly water is need (1ton of Al requires atleast 13 KL of Water and 15000 KWH of Power)

[4] Stiglitz,ibid

Mining and the 12th Five Year Plan

Mining is one of the most environmentally and socially destructive economic activity. It has a low contribution to the GDP but the conflict it engenders is enormous and widespread. Our country today has the dubious distinction of having illegal mines significantly outnumbering the legal mines. A new Mines Mineral Development and

Regulation Act is on the anvil and it calls for far reaching reforms in the mining sector.

The 12th Five year plan should usher in an era of Mineral Development with development as the focus rather than the current attitude of exploiting minerals.

The key emphasis for the plan has to be on

1) Rationalising and regularization of the on-going mining activities on a war

footing;

The unacceptable situation of illegal mining must be put to an end. Irrational exploitation of differing grades of ores for short term gains has to be restrained.

Illegal mining of minor-minerals particularly of river-bed across the country have

been destroying the river systems and needs urgent attention.

2) Increasing investments on exploration especially through non-invasive technologies and augmenting the reserves both on-land and within our exclusive economic zone in the oceans;

Exploration investment in the country is abysmally low and does not even constitute 2% of the global exploration investments and needs to be raised significantly. There are very little resources going into developing new exploration methods. While our

EEZ extends to 200 km from the coast, current investments are restricted only to search for oil and gas.

3) Enhancing the efficiency of the mining activities and generating more resources from “brown-field” expansion rather than opening up new “green-field” areas;

Small pocket deposits in forested regions are being opened up creating patchiness and larger impact on the forest corridors while efficiency improvements and expansion of existing deposits are being neglected. This has to be a high priority.

4) Enabling and emphasizing on local value addition and restricting export of minerals;

Though every state government talks about value addition, in the name of lack of technology or that mining is a stand-alone industry important minerals are being exported with very little benefit to the state or the communities. Value addition must be the norm rather than as an exception.

5) Developing a widespread understanding of the strategic value of different minerals and ensuring conservation of requisite quantities of such minerals;

The strategic value of various minerals must be recognized and specific efforts must be made to conserve minerals essential for the country’s future. Minerals such as bauxite, titanium, and several heavy metals crucial for future development of materials need to be assessed for our long term needs rather than for profits to corporates in the current period.

6) Ensuring strict compliance of all the environmental, social and labour laws governing mining activities and

Several environmental, social and labour laws are constantly violated in several mining contexts. The laws should be made convergent with proper oversight authorities. The blight of occupational diseases such as asbestosis and silicosis must be eliminated.

7) Enabling evolution of economic opportunities not dependent on mining.

The long term consequences of climate change and strategic future mineral availability should form the key consideration in the development of minerals. It is important to recognize that mineral bearing areas do not suffer from the classic situation of “resource curse” which is seen across the globe. In order to do this effort must be made to identify economic opportunities which are not dependent on mining.

We must recognize that the minerals will be ours for ever if we restrain mining but the wealth of the soil and other biota will be lost for ever if we mine the minerals below them. Mechanisms like the NPV do not reflect the true long term value of the ecosystem services the terrain and the plant and animal resources provide.

A colonial relic past its time…

A colonial relic past its time…

The tyrannical face of land acquisition needs to undergo a makeover, soon.

He looks vulnerable with his boyish, innocent smile. He has turned out to be a David to the Goliath that the Government represents. This diminutive, wealthless man, Anna Hazare has made the impossible possible with his dogged stance, that people across the country have backed. And in the new tide of confidence that we saw from him, he has raised the bar with his demand [among other things] for reforms in regulations for land acquisition and reparation. What did he really mean by this? What has been the scenario on ‘taking away’ of people’s lands from the mute, helpless lot of farmers in the country?

If you go back in history to 1894, you will see the British brought this law, the Land Acquisition Act, to enable the colonial administration to quickly ‘take’ lands when the State needed them for public purposes like creating the network of railways, or for logging for timber in the sub Himalayan region, for irrigation projects and such. Therefore they made it a strong procedural law claiming that there was an eminent domain of the state in the business of ‘takeover’ of such properties of people.

The act continued because it was convenient for the government. Further, it was a procedural Act that the state governments had no work to do with it. To this day, 60+ years after Independence, you won’t find many state-level rules for land acquisition. When it was a colonial power it was alright to call it ‘land acquisition’. The very idea of acquisition is unconstitutional in the context of the tyranny of such land grabbing that has been the norm in the last decade.

So what would you do? In place of acquisition you actually need that land from that person who is the right holder as of now. And you need to recognize the rights these people hold. If an organization—be it a mining company or a large power project—wants a landowner to relinquish his rights for its business activity, the holder has to be requested to relinquish his property or resources. And for the hardship, loss of livelihood, displacement from the land and the community that he belonged to, there has to be a price that the organization or the Government agrees to pay as ‘reparation’.

Well, this is a function that will be better served if the tyranny of a hundred-year-old Act is restructured to allow for various state government to make rules and regulations that will reflect such equity in the making. What applies in Rajasthan does not apply in Himachal Pradesh. Even by the current Bill, the resettlement and rehabilitation provisions can be only invoked if 100 acres are acquired together. But then 100 acres in any mountainous terrain of the hill states, of Western or Eastern Ghats, or the sub-Himalayas, is very huge.

Depending upon where the land is, settlements of communities that are sometimes centuries-old disappear forever. The State administration is better positioned to understand the sensitivities of such land acquisition—at least the local administration will recognize local conditions better than it can be done in the corridors of New Delhi.

The Central Act is far too procedural to serve the purpose any more in an economy that is growing as rapidly as now. Coal extraction alone is rising from the current level of 300 million to 2 billion tonnes by 2030! Then there is iron ore, bauxite, gas exploration and other such projects that are necessary, that need to be handled with a human face put to the process of acquiring such lands.

So what are the lessons that the rest of the world offers us today? The UN has sought ‘free, prior and informed consent’ from such landowners. This means a transparent process of partnering such requisition of land [not acquisition]. The Government or an organization cannot go into acquisition for a project saying, “I want so much land.” They need to say, “I want this land for a project.” And then explain the consequences. “It will destroy so much of the forest, draw so much water from some other area, displace people, throw up dust and such.” People need to understand what the Government or such organizations are going into. What are the risks before the community and their traditional lands and the forests around?

How do you size the need of land for a project? When the Hajira-Bijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline project was taken up two decades ago, there were 7 fertilizer plants. They were all 1,350-tonne per day plants, with more or less the same Italian technology. In the chain of HBJ plants, IFFCO operates the same-scale plant at 376 acres. Indo Gulf Fertilisers has 672 acres. NFL has got about 700 acres. The Tatas have as much as 2100 acres.

Look at the new Mining Bill. It says any single lease has to have a cap of 100 square kilometers, or 10,000 ha. Companies end up having one pocket of deposit here, another tract of land in another region, leading to destruction of larger ecosystems around two different micro-regions. While the law was intended to avoid abuse of sensitive ecosystems, and to bring restraint in the Government’s own and of an organisation’s need for acquiring lands, that intent is not served well thanks to the lack of latitude and autonomy in decision-making at the local administration level.

These are complex issues, of course. And for every suggestion that is made for such structural changes in a system as old as acquisition, there will be a dozen potential risks that experts will identify. The question, as Anna Hazare is asking, is: What is fair to the farmer? How do we strip the government and administration of that hideous face of tyranny and corruption that is hurting the vulnerable, silent thousands across India?

Sreedhar Ramamurthi

Vedas and the Dantas

Vedas prescribe the philosophies and

I am a person who wants peace and hence it is often difficult for me to be a litigant. However when the local communities or people who are directly affected and rarely I myself ( taking care of the constitution and particularly protecting the environment are, not only mine, every citizen's duty) put on a wrench have to take to litigation and it must be considered fair in the current context of varied `vested' interests'.

Veda: Since it was the first it is "Veda Vakhyam"

The first real litigation on public purpose where I was involved was a convincing visit to Borra Caves, an unique geological monument made of the Karst topography in the Eastern Ghats Visakhapatnam district accidentally happening in our lives and furiously I wrote on the ruled sheets that I in the midst of about 300 people sitting in a marriage hall, the real concerns of people.

Samatha for whom I made the visit, thanks to a visionary driver, fought `tooth and nail' ( there is an incident of a graet activist losing teeth during this period and how not only nails but lives were later taken - subject for along blog) and a verdict was delivered in the favour of the tribals first time in the history of colonial and independent India. Wonderful it was that the client Samatha and the eminent advocate Dr Rajiv Dhawan never met face-to-face during the four year struggle. Wonderful because it is only a great pleader who can know the pain of his plaintiff without having to meet him. (In restrospect many believe that it was possible only that way.) No wonder that a major victory had been won for the adivasis of India. That was circa 1997! It was hailed later by the honourable advocate himself that this verdict was as historic as the Mabo judgement in Australia, another common wealth.

Just a decade later, the famous lawyer had to counter his own erudite and illustrious arguments and plead for the Orissa Government to allow mining in the tribal tracts. Was it due to the shabby treatment meted in the sale of Balco where pro bono he pleaded and was grossly undersupported by his clients and the clients had perhaps catapulted! Is there a reason to believe that advocates have also catapulted - and that is my serious concern- as some of these insightful and visonary lawyers are needed to be pro bono!

The lawyer pleads in an article in down to earth that institutions like CEC is micro-managing the affair. It was conducive to Veda-anta (sic) for the Supreme Court to micro-prescribe, that despite the fact that their activities were derogatory of the laws and their investors had condemned them for vioation of Human Rights and Environmental Safeguards, to ask for a joint venture to enable them destroy the land and deity of the Dongaria Kondh - the NIyamgiri hills for `just a few dollars more". Where does collusion end in India - (there is market for public office and sometime I wonder if I would rake in moneys if I start and Exchange for Public Office) and there is the market for selling of the land - in the name of SEZs or Mining leases or for mere industrial estates which periodically haunt local communities - and today the specific logic of the CEC which has been a body actually created for this micro-prescription by the Hon Supreme Court hurts!

I have nothing to say except that windfall profits must be shared with communities and that we need not pock-mark our country with numerous mining pits but seek a rational way of using our resources and at a time and context that will be appropriate for our future and the future of the globe- but who will listen to sane voices if Environment Day is also to be an event marketed and made use of by the channels to add to their advertisement revenues and Vedantas have to plead through citizens magazines a license to loot this Earth and the citizens therein!

Verdicts and Justice

My continuing encounters with the Judiciary in India makes me realise the absolutely short term memory that our dispensers of justice have. Most often the judges forget the core issue and seek some peripheral question on the spur of the moment. Most of these questions too are not very bright either. At the end of the long drawn hearings the judges pass a verdict. Perhaps the fundamental problem is in their training itself - for there are no Colleges for Justice and Jurisprudence but only Law Colleges! Today the courts reflect more of the global economic policies than even what the constitution of India would perhaps permit and where several political parties might fear to tread. But engaging the Court is as necessary as building the grassroot consciousness - and one must get along with the rigmarole!