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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 'Mining industry needs an image makeover'

'Mining industry needs an image makeover'

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published Published on Aug 25, 2010   modified Modified on Aug 25, 2010
NationalAdvisory Council member and former bureaucrat N C Saxena headed the four memberpanel which recommended that Orissa Mining Corporation (the company that was tosupply bauxite ore to Vedanta’s Lanjigarh plant) not be permitted to mineon Niyamgiri hill. ET spoke to Mr Saxena a few hours after the environmentministry accepted his committee’s recommendations. Excerpts from theinterview:


What are theimplications of today’s decision? Some sections of corporate India feelthat laws such as the Forest Rights Act (FRA) are making it impossible to mineanywhere at all in India?


It’s very easy to mine in thiscountry once you take the consent of the local communities. They are rationalpeople. If the project is beneficial for them, they will agree. But, look at thedevelopment tribals get from these projects. Local communities get less than 5%of the jobs created by these projects. In the last 30-40 years, people displacedby projects have become destitute, not better off. The men have becomerickshaw-pullers and the women have become sex workers. Is this what we mean bymainstreaming them? Industry should sit down and think about why its image is sopoor.


What about the role played bythe state and the local administration in the poor implementation of theFRA?


The administration has totally withdrawn. I asked one ofthe local collectors (the Vedanta project straddles Rayagada and Kalahandidistricts) what the locals felt about the project and he did not know if theywere happy with it or not.


TheVedanta bauxite project was first cleared by government bodies. It took a lot ofprotests and specially-appointed committees to roll that decision back. Whatdoes this say about the mechanism of clearing projects in thecountry?


The company has been playing games with thegovernment. Instead of applying for clearances in one go, it has been applyingin parts. In the process, there has been a continuous violation of law. Butthen, before 2009, even the environment ministry saw environment laws not assomething to be implemented, but as a source for rent-seeking. This is veryunfortunate.


Vedanta has beentalking about the CSR work it does in Kalahandi. What did your committee seewhile on the site?


It is an eyewash. The scale is very small.Further, the benefits of most of what they do goes to communities in thefoothills. None of it goes to the Dongria Kondhs who are the most affected bythe project. Even the Kutia Kondhs, who live on the foothills and have beenbeneficiaries of the CSR activities are upset due to reasons like highpollution.



http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Interviews/articleshow/6429436.cms


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