In the article “Posco: take the land but give life” (July 4), Sunita Narain claims that betel farmers earn Rs 10 lakh to Rs 17.5 lakh per hectare a year. This compares rather well with any senior government employees’ annual salary. One is, therefore, left wondering if these people who “clearly look poor” are actually poor. Earlier, we saw Arundhati Roy estimating the value of Orissa’s bauxite deposits alone at $4 trillion (“Mr. Chidambaram’s war,” Outlook, November 9, 2009). Add to this the value of the millions of tonnes of high-quality iron ore in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and the mineral wealth of India can be pegged at, maybe, $20 trillion!
Non-government organisations and people that champion the cause of tribals will end up losing their credibility if they hyper-inflate incomes and wealth levels, even if it is to ensure better compensation for tribals. Though there should be a strict watch on politicians trying to short-change poor tribals, the issue of compensation should not be overblown. That will impact much-needed investments – foreign and domestic – because an entrepreneur invests his time, money and energy to make a decent return and not for philanthropic purposes.
Ajay Tyagi, Mumbai
Readers should write to:
The Editor, Business Standard,
Nehru House,
4, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,
New Delhi 110 002,
Fax: (011) 23720201;
letters@bsmail.in