The demand for land in Jharkhand is increasingly, but this would mean more and more tribals in the near future as the drive to take over land intensifies following the notification of the state rehabilitation and resettlement policy (R&RP) and its rapid roll-out under the excuse of it being reportedly the “best” in the country.
Jharkhand had the fifth highest concentration of forest-dwellers and tribals in the country and these communities were expected to be the worst hit.
It was estimated that 55 per cent of the people displaced due to mining in Jharkhand are tribals, according to the recent report released by the New Delhi-based organization Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
The report said, ”The very people for whom Jharkhand was ostensibly created are now being sacrificed in the name of their own state’s development.”
The CSE report on Jharkhand’s condition was part of its 356-page ‘State of India’s Environment’ report, with the section on Jharkhand titled ‘Rich Lands, Poor People – Is sustainable mining possible?’.
The CSE report alleged that in Jharkhand rampant mining had turned large tracts of forests into wasteland.
The report said that according to the Union ministry of environment and forests, between 1985-2004, more than 9,000 hectare of forest land had been used up for mining in Jharkhand.
This was approximately 10 per cent of the total forest land diverted for mining in India and this did not include the thousands of hectares diverted by the coal mining sector.
According to Sunita Narain, director of CSE, “Mining is being promoted in the country for the wrong reason- employment. All state governments justify mining arguing that the sector will provide employment, but this is a chimera. The formal mining industry in India employees just 5.6 people and this number is coming down.”
Investors however had launched a fresh drive to get land in Jharkhand after notification of the R&RP recently.
In response, leading investors signed memorandum of understanding with the Jharkhand government were moving briskly to have their lands for setting up industries.
Steel giant Arcelor-Mittal recently submitted its application for over 11,000 acres in Khunti and Gumla districts to set up its proposed steel plant, power plant and resettlement colony.
Other investors like Tata Steel, Essar and Jindal also placed their land requirement before the state government recently.
Some senior state government officials here claimed that after publication of the gazette notification of the R&R policy extending a large number of facilities to land losers, it would be easier to acquire lands for prospective investors in Jharkhand.
However, opposition parties and the NGO’s working in the villages maintained that resistance would continue.
The super power project of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) at Torpa, now in Khunti district, could not see the light of day because of the failure of the state government in acquiring the required lands for the project.
The power utility had spent several crores of rupees for maintaining its engineers, project office, guest house and other facilities at the site for over a decade.
Later, the project was shelved.
The Magadh open cast mining project of the public sector Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) was had been delayed as well for several years as the local people were reluctant to provide their land for the coal project.
The R&RP was approved by the state cabinet on July 16.
The R&RP promised one job to one family member of every family selling part or whole of its land for a development project, along with distribution of half of the two per cent of the net profit on investment among the displaced families on a pro rata basis.
The other half would be spent on peripheral development at the site.
In a last-minute amendment to the R&R Policy, a clause was incorporated in the policy that the investors would have to pay Rs 1,000 each month to the displaced family for a period of 30 years.
Options were also given to the displaced families to either avail of or subscribe to the share and debentures of the investing company on half of their lands parted with for the enterprise.
Another clause mandated that 80 per cent of the cost of the venture, sold in case of liquidation or dissolution, would accrue to families losing their land on a proportionate basis.
It would also be applied in case of the government acquiring such land. The land, in addition, would also be restored to the family that had lost out on their land.
Investors would now have to provide houses to the displaced as also to those Below Poverty Line (BPL) families inhabiting the area where the project was located.
The policy promised Rs 50,000 as compensation to shop owners who had been operating for 30 years in the prescribed periphery of the enterprise in the scheduled areas and for 15 years in non-scheduled areas.
The policy had a provision that investors would have to provide lands for religious area (Sarna shtal) and cremation ground (masna sthals) while rehabilitating and resettling displaced families.
The R&RP directed appointment of a rehabilitation and resettlement commissioner to work alongside the Gram Sabhas and the investors, socially assessing, from time to time the impact of the project on the region’s ecology, natural resources as also the sources of livelihood.
