Whose Resources Are These?
Under the euphoria of market
driven reforms and export-dependent growth trajectory, there is a flood
of investment proposals. Eighty-six MoUs signed by Odisha government. as
on May 6, 2010, with a total amount of Rs 4, 41,471.14 crore—49 steel
industries, 3 alumina Industry, 3 cement projects, 27 power projects, 2
auto ancillary projects, 1 titanium complex, 1 crude oil processing
unit, 1 stainless steel industrial park. Besides investment has also
been proposed on ports, universities, hospitals, and many a SEZ.
Currently 2754 industries—large, medium and small scale—are operating in
the state. Most of the industries (65 per cent) in the state being
engaged in primary manufacturing activities fall within the red
category.
In fact, some researchers refer to
the present state of affairs as “deindustrialisation”, since “the recent
spurt in new investment proposals in industries in the state in the
1990s is mostly in the private sector, including multinationals, that,
too, in processing industries creating the problems of displacement and
environmental pollution”. This seems to corroborate the finding of other
research during the pre-globalisation period that the “pace of
industrialisation has increased during 1981-91 as compared to 1971-81,
due to both the increase in the correlation between agricultural
production and industrial production from 0.38 to 0.63 and increase in
the growth of agricultural production from 1.71 per cent to 3.49 per
cent”.
MINES: Odisha
contributes 98.4 per cent of chromite, 56 per cent of bauxite, 28.7 per
cent graphite, 28.5 per cent manganese, 34 per cent iron, 24.8 per cent
coal and 91 per cent nickel to the total mineral and coal reserves of
India. In addition to this, Odisha is the largest reserve of seven major
minerals in India. All the mineral-rich districts of the state feature
in the list of 150 most backward districts of the country, says the
report of CSE. “Statistics indicate that the income from mineral
extraction rarely benefits the regions from where these minerals come—in
fact, poverty is increasing in many of these districts,”
Between 1950 and 1991, mining
displaced about 2.6 million people— not even 25 per cent of these
displaced have been rehabilitated. For every 1 per cent that mining
contributes to India’s GDP, it displaces 3-4 times more people than all
the development projects put together.
Forest land diversion for mining has been going up. So has water use and air pollution in the mining hotspots.
Mining of major minerals generated about 1.84 billion tonnes of waste in 2006—most of which has not been disposed of properly.
Mining-isation of Industry: Mining in Odisha
Overall, during 1993-94 and 2003-04, the
rate of mineral exploitation in Odisha has increased—on an average per
year—by 10.3 per cent, while its value has gone up by 12.8 per cent.
Export of minerals in quantity terms has gone up by 15.7 per cent,
higher than the increase in exploitation rate, implying that a smaller
percentage of the exploited minerals is used now to meet domestic needs.
The value of exports has also increased. Despite all this, this
capital-intensive sector has been ruthless on employment, reducing the
number of workers by an average 4 per cent annually. During the period
1993-94 to 2001-02, for NSDP at constant (1993-94) prices, mining shows
the highest average annual increase of 11.66 per cent, while agriculture
and unregistered manufacturing exhibit decreases of more than 1 per
cent per year.
The average annual rates of
exploitation of the most important minerals, namely, iron ore,
chromites, coal, and bauxite (as a percentage of reserves at the
beginning of the year) is quite high, from 7.3 per cent for bauxite to
15.9 per cent for iron ore. If this growth rate in exploitation is
maintained, the state’s existing iron ore and chromate reserves would
get exhausted in 20 years and coal and bauxite reserves in 50 years! As
per Indian Minerals Yearbook 2005, published by the Indian
Bureau of Mines, Odisha is one of two states (other is Jharkhand) that
had leased area per mine in 2003-04 in excess of 150 hectares. It is not
just the resource exhaustion and environmental degradation, but also
the paltry price at which minerals are doled out to corporations.
The employment generation by mining
remains an across-the-board fall in the number of workers. The sole
exception is the number of workers engaged in bauxite mining, which has
gone up by around 6 per cent per year. But that is no solace, since
bauxite accounts only for 1 per cent of the total mineral workers
employed, whereas coal, iron ore, and chromate, the big employers in the
mining sector, employ anywhere between 13 per cent and 35 per cent each
of the total mineral workers. The fall in the number of workers per
lakh tonne employed highlights the increasing mechanisations in this
sector.
Coming to mines specifically, we
find that, between 1993-94 and 2003-04, the number of workers employed
by them fell across all districts except the industrial districts,
(Baleshwar, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Jagatsingpur, Khorda, Mayurbhanj,
Sambalpur) which along with the non-industrial districts (Baudh,
Debgarh, Gajapati, Ganjam, Kandhamal, Kendrapara, Nayagarh, Puri) showed
a higher average annual increase in output than did the mining
districts.
As far as the value of output is
concerned, the average annual increase of 57.49 per cent for non
industrial districts, which is far higher than those for mining and
industrial districts, points its finger towards a possible
mining-isation.
Mining and Forest
Odisha accounts for 7 per cent of
India’s forests. Topping the list of states, Odisha saw 5,151 hectare of
forest land being diverted since January 2007. Since 1980 till date
more than 34,000 hectares of forest land has been already diverted for
different non-forestry purpose and only mining contributes to a tune of
14,000 hectares. The industry has a share of 2000 hectares of forest
land.
In fact, if we look at forest area
diverted for non-forest use, it went up from 789 hectares at the end of
1993-94 to 28,769 hectares at the end of 2003-04, an average annual
increase at the rate of 43 per cent! Mining accounted for one third,
irrigation one-fourth, transmission lines one-ninth, and industries
one-twelfth of diversion of the 28,769 hectares. On the other hand, the
state government is on the verge of dropping the plan for the proposed
Baitarani Elephant Reserve even after clearance from the central
environment and forest ministry, just because, once this mineral-rich
area is classified as a reserve, mining would not be possible there.
According to figures released in
early 2010 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Odisha has one of
the highest rates of diversion of forest land. Of total forest land
cleared for mining in India, Odisha accounts for 17 per cent. In fact,
the state leads the nation in diversion of forest land for mining during
the last three year.
Besides, out of the total land of
79,339 hectares allotted for mining leases as on December 31, 2005, more
than 50 per cent is forest area. Fortunately, as per the Directorate of
Mines, only a quarter of that forest had been officially allowed for
diversion as of the end of 2005. The mining of iron ore accounts for the
highest percentage of land allocated towards mining as of the end of
2005.
The reckless drive to sell off
resources to corporate capital seems to be the onset of capitalism to
denote, a) the use of state force to expropriate resources and
facilitate accumulation of capital; b) the forcible incorporation of
non-commodified resources in the capitalist economy, such as forest and
wilderness, air in the form of carbon-trading, etc; c) the takeover of
commons / public institutions/spaces /resources into private
commodities.
The proposed investment in steel has
been over Rs 1,98,149 crore for producing around 76 million tonnes per
annum (MTPA); Power sector investments envisage producing just over
25,000 MW at an investment of around Rs 1 lakh crore. A Rs 3,812 crore
investment in cement has been planned to produce roughly 5 MTPA. In
aluminum, the proposed investment is almost Rs 30,000 crore for 3.0 to
4.0 MTPA. Besides, whereas around Rs 20,000 crore have been planned for
creating a SEZ in 4,000-5,000 hectares, Rs 15,000 crore has been
proposed for private universities. Even an auto park is being
contemplated to be set up by Amtek, the leader in global automotive
components, which also wants to set up a 2 MTPA steel plant and a 500 MW
power plant.
All the planned power projects are,
however, coal-based, save the one by Cala Casa of Spain, which has
evinced interest in setting up a 20 MW multipurpose, generation-IV
nuclear plant. In fact, the power plant proposed by the Anil Dhirubhai
Ambani Group (ADAG) would be the world’s biggest coal-based one. It
seems that Odisha would indeed become the “powerhouse” of India, as was
claimed by the Prime Minister and also Odisha’s Chief Minister.
The Odisha government is vigorously
pushing the “education industry” and has even set up a higher education
task force, which is “managed” by a private educational foundation!
Since it has also become a fashion with corporations to hang the carrot
of setting up a university or institute, it is not surprising that ADAG
plans to set up a Dhirubhai Ambani University in Bhubaneswar to “boost
IT education in the state” (Telegraph 2006). But the plan for
the Vedanta University in the state is the most grandiose of all. It has
been promised 6,000 acres of land, which would make it one of the
largest campuses in the world. Even our premier institutions are not
that land-rich: Hyderabad University has 2,300 acres, IIT Kharagpur
2,100, and JNU 1,000; even world-class Harvard and MIT in the US have
just 150-400 acres. One, therefore, wonders whether the land for the
Vedanta University would be diverted in the future towards a SEZ.
Similarly, Tata Steel’s proposed
SEZ, focusing on metal manufacturing and ancillary development, is
planned to be on 3,000 acres of land in Gopalpur, where it is in
possession of 3,200 acres of land acquired by it earlier for a proposed
steel plant. Those ousted by steel plants in Bhilai, Bokaro, and
Rourkela cite cases of surplus land, earlier acquired for peanuts by the
steel plant authority in these three cities, being sold off by the
acquirer “at exorbitant prices to many public and private corporate
sector bodies”. In fact, “insider trading” in land is carried out by the
influential people before a region gets industrialised.
There are 13 new locations of ports,
notified by the GOO. Despite the objections raised by Defence Research
and Development Organisation for setting up three proposed ports in
Odisha’s Balasore district (at Ichudi, Chandipur and Bahabalpur) as well
as objections raised by Paradip Port Trust regarding the proposed port
at Jatadhari Muhan by POSCO, GOO is hell bent on implementing the
projects—being unmindful to the colossal damages that would befall on
the people and the environment in terms of destruction of marine
ecology, displacement and devastation of livelihood resources of coastal
people, increasing salinity and water logging (consequent destruction
of agriculture).
By Sudarshan Chhotoray From Bhubaneswar
http://udayindia.in/2012/10/06/whose-resources-are-these/
No comments:
Post a Comment