=============================================== CSE's Fortnightly News Bulletin (July 4, 2011) =============================================== What is this 'development' and 'growth' basket that India's planning mandarins seem to be putting all their eggs into? We bring you more on the battle for Posco and the question of sustainable growth, with Ms Narain's editorial, a special report and a reporter's diary on the issue. CSE's media team is also adding to the debate, with a media briefing being planned in Visakhapatnam later this month on the subject of how 'growth' is threatening the country's water wealth... Read on.
===================================================================================================================== Sign up to receive this e-newsletter http://equitywatch.org/phplist/?p=subscribe&id=6 To unsubscribe, just click http://www.cseindia.org/content/please-enter-your-email-id-unsubscribe-cse-newsletter If you have any questions or concerns about subscription, please contact Vikas Khanna at [email protected]. ======================================================== EDITORIAL: POSCO: take land but give life by Sunita Narain ======================================================== The sight on television was heartbreaking: children lying in rows in the searing sun to be human shields against the takeover of their land for Korean giant POSCO’s mega bucks project. Facing them were armed police sent by the state government to assist in the operation. The steel plant and port project, located in a coastal district of Odisha, has been in a six-year-long eyeball-to-eyeball battle with people whose land will be acquired. Now with clearances coming through the state government wants the land acquired, at whatever cost it seems. It has put a financial offer on the table, which even pays for encroached government land. It believes this is a lifetime offer people should now accept. Move on, let the project be built and precious foreign investment come to the shores of this poor state. The question we need to ask once again is why people who look so obviously poor are fighting this project. Why won’t they accept the financial compensation, which gives them an opportunity to start a new life and spare their children the drudgery of growing betel nut? Is it growth and development versus environment or just uninformed, illiterate people or even politically motivated agitators? Is it really as simple as that? I am afraid not. POSCO is about growth versus growth. People here are poor but they know that this project will make them poorer. This is the fact that we in the modern economy find difficult to comprehend. This is an area of betel farming done on mostly forestland belonging to the state. Of the 1,620 ha needed for the project 90 per cent, or 1440 ha, is this contested forestland. When the project site was selected, government did not consider it would have to pay compensation for this land—it was encroached upon by the people, and government would simply take it back for the steel giant. But it was forestland and the people who lived there had cultivated on it for as long as they could remember. This then raised the tricky matter of the conditions under the Forest Rights Act that require people to give their consent to the project. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests overruled its own dissenting committee to say it would have to trust the state government’s version that all procedures were followed in determining that people in these villages were not entitled to this right to decide because they were not traditional forest dwelling community. With this sorted, environmental and forest clearance was granted. Land acquisition for the project could proceed. But people who were not asked still said no. Why? After all, the state government says it has accommodated all demands in its offer. It has agreed to limit the acquisition of private dwellings and village land. People will still have homes; they will only lose livelihood. But even that will be compensated. It has agreed to pay for the loss of the use of forestland, even though technically people have no rights over it. The farmers will be paid, according to field reports from Odisha, some Rs 28.75 lakh for each ha of “encroached” betel farmland. Then the package includes provision for payment to wage earners, who will lose livelihood when betel farms go. The severance pay has a sweetener. The government will pay a stipend, limited to a year, for the period people look for “jobs”. In addition, the 460-odd families who lose homes will be resettled in colonies. So why is the generous offer being rejected? Is it only because of the obduracy of a few people, namely the leaders of one gram panchayat, Dhinkia? This village has locked out the administration for the past three years. All roads to it are barricaded. It is a mutiny, fierce and determined. This village holds out alone because its gram panchayat covers some 55 per cent of the land earmarked for the steel plant, its captive power plant and its private port project. Two other gram panchayats are involved, but their loss is smaller and their leadership is not so strong. But my colleague who visited the residents of the villages waiting in a transit camp for their new houses to be built and handed over, found discontent brewing. Where is our livelihood, people asked? What will we do? These questions are at the core of the battles raging across the country wherever land is being taken for development but people are losing livelihoods. In yet-to-be POSCO-land, betel farming earns Rs 10-17.5 lakh per ha per year. The compensation is equal to two to three years of earning. In addition, there is the earning from paddy, fish ponds and fruit trees. This land-based economy is employment-intensive. The iron and steel plant, however vital for the nation’s economic growth, cannot provide local employment. For one, local people are not “employable” in such a plant. Two, this modern state-of-the-art plant needs only a limited number of people in its operations. POSCO is then about growth versus growth. It is just we who have discounted this economy of the land for so long in our understanding of what works and what matters. It is just we who have forgotten that development cannot be development if it takes lives of the very people for whom it is meant. The message is clear: if we want their land, we will have to give them a life. Post your comments on this editorial online at http://downtoearth.org.in/content/posco-take-land-give-life ======================= MORE FROM DOWN TO EARTH ======================= Down To Earth is now on Facebook and Twitter. Do follow us, share, comment, and discuss and stay in constant touch with our reporters on www.facebook.com/down2earthindia and twitter@downtoearthindia. - Cover story: Gentle on critical pollution After declaring 43 industrial areas in India as critically polluted and imposing a moratorium on their expansion, what is the status now. 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Reach the online CSE Environment Photo Store at http://www.flickr.com/photos/csepictures - Follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/indiaenvportal and join us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/indiaenvironmentportal/228015872817 - Get linked. List and provide links of your organisation (or your library's website) on the portal as a 'free-to-use' online resource on environment. For any assistance, please contact [email protected], [email protected] ============================================= LEARNING WITH CSE Courses offered by Anil Agarwal Green College ============================================= The new Green Schools training programme Date: July 28-29, 2011 & August 18-19, 2011 Course details: http://www.cseindia.org/node/1186 Course contact:Ashish Shah Deputy Coordinator Environment Education Unit Phone: 9871702439 Email: [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------- Social Impact Assesment: Date: August 10-12, 2011 Last date for applying: July 25, 2011 Course Module: - Exposure to aspects of SIA, from theory to applications - Integrated approach for addressing SIA and EIA process - from scoping, data collection to impact assessment as well as the role of public consultations - Knowledge on review of SIA reports and identification of strengths and weaknesses - Post SIA monitoring - Procedure for institutional strengthening and capacity building - Experience sharing on national and international best practices in SIA Course details: http://www.cseindia.org/node/2208 For more details contact: Sujit Kumar Singh Industry & Environment Unit, Centre for Science and Environment Tel: + 91-11-29955124/ 6110, Extension: 281, | Fax: + 91-11-29955879 Mob. No.: +91 9899676027 E-mail: [email protected] -------------------------------------------------------------- Urban Transport Strategies: Agenda for Reforms An orientation programme for policy makers Date: July 28 – 30, 2011 Place: New Delhi Course Module: - Challenges of urbanization and mobility crisis - Environmental impacts -- air pollution, congestion, public health, energy and climate impacts - Challenges of mobility management - Strategies to scale up public transport and design multi-modal integration - Bus sector reforms - Making cities walkable - Non-motorised transport - Parking policy as a congestion reduction strategy - Funding public transport - Lessons from JNNURM programme Course details: http://www.cseindia.org/content/urban-transport-strategies-agenda-reforms For more details contact:Priyanka Chandola Tel: 011 - 29955124 Mob: 9810414938 Fax: 011 - 29955879 Email: [email protected] -------------------------------------------------------------------- Covering India: Where journalism meets environment Date: November 1-30, 2011 This certificate course is designed as a hands-on 'bootcamp', and targets those interested in a career in mainstream or niche news media, development communication, civil society campaign and advocacy initiatives, and industry CSR, among others. Course Module: - Environment as a subject of coverage - Ecological rights, natural resource management and food security - Urban growth: contemporary challenges - Climate change policies, politics - Hands-on research labs - News writing & editing studios - Supervised field-based reporting and writing Some fellowships for participants from South Asia available. Course details: http://www.cseindia.org/node/2607 Course Contact: Sharmila Sinha [email protected] / [email protected] ================================ UPDATES FROM OUR PROGRAMME UNITS ================================ - The Annual Green Schools Awards The Environment Education Unit at Centre for Science and Environment is conducting the Gobar Times Green Schools Awards Ceremony 2010 - 2011 on Date: July 15, 2011 Time: 3pm to 6pm Venue: Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003 Chief guest: Honourable Chief Minister of Delhi Ms. Sheila Dikshit Special guest: Mr. Amit Kilam and other members of Indian Ocean To know more: http://www.cseindia.org/content/gobar-times-green-schools-awards-ceremony-2010-2011 For further details, contact Ashish Shah at [email protected] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Third CSE Media Fellowships for the South Asian Region: Deadline for applying extended till July 15,2011 Water barred: need or greed? A fellowship on South Asian water bodies, community and ‘development’ For journalists from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka Date: August 2011 – November 2011 Last date of receiving application: July 15, 2011 For details, visit http://www.cseindia.org/node/2599 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - CSE is organising a fellowship media briefing workshop on 'Water Bodies in India-Public Spaces, Private Designs' All journalists working and writing on development issues in the country, including freelancers, are invited to apply. Date: July 26-27,2011 Place: Visakhapatnam For further details, please visit http://cseindia.org/node/2749 or write to Papia Samajdar at [email protected] For online line registration, click on http://cseindia.org/node/1577 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) releases its report on profit sharing in the mining sector. To see the report: http://www.cseindia.org/content/report-profit-sharing-released-odisha-june-24-2011 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CSE's research on lakes Our urban water unit has put together a comprehensive data bank on lakes in India. To get all the details, follow http://www.cseindia.org/node/689 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rain Water Harvesting technical support Every Friday between 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) provides detailed technical guidance to interested individuals, RWAs and institutions to implement rainwater harvesting. The technical assistance will be provided at CSE’s office at 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area. For details see the following link: http://www.cseindia.org/content/catch-rainwater-solve-your-water-problems ==================================== >From our stores =================================== CSE introduces its new range of 100% organic T-shirts, to check them out or to place an order, visit http://csestore.cse.org.in/t-shirts/100-organic-t-shirts.html and place your orders. ==================================== About this e-mail ==================================== You are receiving this newsletter because you have asked to be included in our list, attended a CSE event or requested information. CSE is an independent, public interest organization that was established in 1982 by Anil Agarwal, a pioneer of India's environmental movement. CSE's mandate is to research, communicate and promote sustainable development with equity, participation and democracy. -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________
