The Supreme Court decision banning both mining and movement of ore in Bellary district in Karnataka, following the Lok Ayukta report, is excessive. The blanket ban penalises even those who did nothing wrong. While the outrage over the illegal profiteering of over Rs 12,000 crore by a politician-operator-bureaucrat combine is understandable, applying the brakes on all mining and related activity in the district is an undifferentiated response. The court was of course responding to the evidence of large-scale and continuing flouting of mining leases and rules, but would it ban all agriculture on the grounds that farmers were drawing too much groundwater and endangering underground aquifers?
This is of a piece with the ruling earlier by the Allahabad High Court, which looked at only the interests of farmer petitioners whose land had been forcibly acquired in the Noida area, neighbouring Delhi. In ordering that the land be returned to the farmers, the court ignored all the water that had flown under the bridge. Builders had put up large housing structures, and unsuspecting buyers in thousands had booked flats and paid large sums of money. For no fault of theirs, these buyers stood to lose their investment, and could argue that the court had caused them injury just as much as the Noida authority injured the farmers. A better verdict might have been to order proper monetary compensation — a verdict that would have put the burden on the original sinner, the Noida authority, and spared downstream victims.
As for Bellary, a little over 40 per cent of India’s iron ore deposits are found in Karnataka, with Bellary district being the best endowed. Some 20,000 people employed by the mining industry will be directly affected, while the number indirectly affected could be five times as much. The first downstream casualty of the ban will be the steel industry, which in turn provides employment to many thousands. Large steel companies do not stockpile more than two to three weeks of iron ore and, unless the ban is lifted soon, steel production will take a hit. The castings and forgings industry, one step removed, is also bound to be impacted and with that the auto industry.
A moratorium on mining would amount to little more than economic disruption if it does not lead to a comprehensive review of the institutional failures that enabled a scam of such massive proportions to take place. From a political standpoint, the looting was multi-partisan, with the Lok Ayukta’s report accusing members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress of connivance. The wide involvement of the bureaucracy, including the customs and the police, points to the collapse of the system of checks and balances. And of course companies were involved too. The court order should, therefore, be used to order a thorough clean-up of the whole business.
