Villagers’ to decide Vedanta project fate
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NEW DELHI: The villages of DongriyaKondhtribals around Odisha'sNiyamgiri
hills are set to become a flash point again, with the Centre and the
state government along with civil society groups planning to converge on
the site of the proposed Vedanta bauxite mine. Emboldened by the
Supreme Court order, the villagers are to decide the fate of the Vedanta
project and take a call whether the venture would affect their
religious and other rights.
The tribal affairs ministry has moved with alacrity to order Odisha to ensure the tribal group can vote freely. It has asked the Naveen Patnaik government to ensure all villages, which express their rights in the contentious zone, are identified and given the opportunity to decide the project's fate.
Civil society groups too have begun to mobilize their own resources - experts and manpower - to make sure there are third party observers at the site, which has been turned into a fortified and well policed zone by the state government ever since the row erupted.
Battle-lines have been drawn among the Centre, Odisha government and corporate interests over the high-profile project. The interpretation of the rules and the court order has started in earnest within various quarters of both central and state government. One section has begun pushing an interpretation of the apex court order that would reduce the number of tribal village councils that would get to decide the venture's fate.
foreign whites demonstrating for Indian tribes
The tribal affairs ministry has moved with alacrity to order Odisha to ensure the tribal group can vote freely. It has asked the Naveen Patnaik government to ensure all villages, which express their rights in the contentious zone, are identified and given the opportunity to decide the project's fate.
Civil society groups too have begun to mobilize their own resources - experts and manpower - to make sure there are third party observers at the site, which has been turned into a fortified and well policed zone by the state government ever since the row erupted.
Battle-lines have been drawn among the Centre, Odisha government and corporate interests over the high-profile project. The interpretation of the rules and the court order has started in earnest within various quarters of both central and state government. One section has begun pushing an interpretation of the apex court order that would reduce the number of tribal village councils that would get to decide the venture's fate.
foreign whites demonstrating for Indian tribes
Will India’s biggest FDI materialize?
21
Thursday
Oct 2010
Tags
Foreign direct investment, government, India, Industrialisation, Jairam Ramesh, Memorandum of understanding, Orissa, POSCO, Rahul Gandhi, South Korea, Vedanta
Foreign direct investment, government, India, Industrialisation, Jairam Ramesh, Memorandum of understanding, Orissa, POSCO, Rahul Gandhi, South Korea, Vedanta
POSCO's proposed unit in Orissa is the biggest FDI of India
More than 5 years ago, when the Govt. of
Orissa signed the MoU with the South Korean Steel giant POSCO, the
people of Orissa were ecstatic and dreamt of a new beginning in the
industrial sector of the state. Such a project was unique as around Rs
51,000 crore money was proposed to be invested making it India’s biggest
FDI. Around the same time the Naveen Pattnaik govt. signed some 50 odd
MoUs and naveen became a messiah for the public in Orissa. Till now his
industrial drive is being touted as his and his party BJD’s success
story (It’s a different story that most of the big projects have not
moved an inch forward since then). The initial euphoria was expected as
Orissa had just moved away from Congress’ misrule which wasn’t able to
bring any new industry and rather was responsible for shutting down many
existing small and middle industries.
Today after 5 years, the POSCO project’s future is marred by petty
politics and complex interpretation of the forest laws. Recently the
Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF) 4-member committee headed by
Meena Gupta, former environment secretary, gave 2 contrasting report
that pushed the future of the project into darkness. As no large
political leader involved with the issue (unlike Vedanta’s Niyamgiri
project which has now become Rahul Gandhi’s pet issue), this news wasn’t
covered by the national media. This post will try to throw light on the
issue and try to interpret the indications to seek the answer to the
question in the title.
The 4 member committee (members: Meena
Gupta, head of the committee, Urmila Pingle, Devendra Pandey and V.
Suresh) empowered by MoEF submitted 2 separate reports on the 18th
October. While chair Meena Gupta in her report asked for conditions to
be added to the existing clearances but NOT to cancel the clearances,
the other 3 members in a separate report suggested that approvals should
be canceled because of “flaws in the studies, and shortcomings in the
clearances granted”. The 3 members strongly disapprove the idea of POSCO
building its own port at the same time states that the govt. of Orissa
helped the company by giving illegal clearances. It is to be reminded
that this committee was formed by MoEF after it had asked the state
govt. to stop all the work on the POSCO site on the Ausgust 5 when the
govt. had started surveying the land to acquire it for POSCO. It was
around the same time when MoEF had revoked the clearance of Vedanta for
its Niyamgiri plant.
Meena Gupta
Coming back to the MoEF committee report,
as the majority view suggest to revoke POSCO’s clearances the future of
the project looks bleak which will be decided on October 25th when the
Forest Advisory Committee meets. What makes the issue more complex is
the statements coming from different parties to the issue. The 3 members
who reported against POSCO’s clearances accused Meena Gupta of giving a
pro-POSCO report to make Govt. of Orissa happy as she is an IAS of
Orissa cadre. At the same time Meena Gupta met Jairam Ramesh and told
him that her report should be considered as she was the head of the
panel. The local media reports Jairam to be ‘soft’ towards the project
as he had said off the record that POSCO and Vedanta issues are two
different cases. So is there any hope left? Or is it the end for POSCO
in India? To answer this, we have to analyse different aspects from the
past, present and the future.
The case is unique indeed. The Orissa
govt. chose the particular place for the plant as most of it were
govt.’s land. Still it has to face stiff resistance from the locals who
are farming illegally on the govt. land. While the govt. and the company
is ready to compensate even the govt. land encroacher, several farmers
aren’t ready to leave. Other than that Forest laws violation is another
accusation that the POSCO is facing. But the real problem is the
indecision at the part of the govt. especially the central govt.
At first, the project’s progress
was monitored by the PMO itself even when the state congress leaders
were opposed to it. The South Korean President was invited as chief
guest for India’s republic day celebrations to assure South Korea that
Govt of India will take steps to make sure that POSCO
project materializes. But the govt. never set a time frame to achieve
goals and it was shocking when all of a sudden in the August 2010, MoEF
stalled the project. While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is to visit
Seoul in this November, he may have to answer some tough questions and
reminded of his assurance. And Jairam’s off the record statement that
POSCO and Vedanta are two different cases is quite significant from this
point of view.
The future aspect of this particular
investment will also be in front of the govt. If this investment fails,
it will surely affect the future investment projects. Orissa is already
facing the outcomes of the slow progress of large investment projects.
As Arcellor-Mittal, Vedanta projects along with that of POSCO has not
progressed for last 4-5 years, no new projects are coming to Orissa.
With the news coming that Gujarat govt. is trying to woo Vedanta to
shift their project to Gujarat and some other states like Jharkhand,
Chattishgarh interested in POSCO’s project, Orissa will never want to
loose these investments. The POSCO bosses are also not happy as the
values of their shares are decreasing day by day because of the
uncertainities over the Orissa project.
The central govt. understand that they
have messed up the issue and with PM visiting South Korea, it may not
take any negative decision. In the October 25th Forest Advisory
Committee meeting they may just take a diplomatic decision that will
delay the progress again and the question “Will India’s biggest FDI
materialize?” will remain.
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