---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Swaminathan Pattabhiraman <[email protected]> Date: Sun, May 8, 2011 at 11:49 PM Subject: Re: [IHRO] Forced clerance of Posco ~ an article To: [email protected]
Graft/corruption [every year] in India is nearly 100 times [10000%] more than India's GDP. Every man in daily walk of life are party or atleast having knowledge of this. Professionals life Charted Accountant, Advocates, Doctors and all other professionals don't give receipt for 100% of their income. No Shops gives correct bills. Look at Registrar office - transactions are recorded just 40% to 50% of the value of the transaction. If anyone visits Panchaya/Municipality/Corporation - one has to pay bribe of 3 times of official levy for plan approval etc., For Land patta the official rates goes to Rs.20,000 per patta of 5 cents of property [with clear title] in the city and Land in water bodies - officials takes any where between 50,000 to 1,00,000. Another funny work is Officials issue any number of pattas to various individuals for the same land. Other areas where birbes are common is at Pass Port Office, Ration cards, Electricity board, etc., One of the worst place one can visit [for the all sins committed] is Police Station; Local Administrators and Court. PWD, and all other govt. contracts - practically for just 25% of work completed they pay 100% and 75% is bribe. When one take what is happening in State Admn. 2G scam, Adarsh, Posco, etc., are nothing. ------------------------------ *From:* Abhijit Sengupta <[email protected]> *To:* Int'l Human Rights Organization <[email protected]> *Sent:* Sat, May 7, 2011 10:31:05 PM *Subject:* [IHRO] Forced clerance of Posco ~ an article 6 May 2011 Forced clearance of Posco Scam Larger Than Spectrum In The Making sam rajappa “I AM forced to conclude that there is no valid gram sabha resolution under Section 6(1) of the Forest Rights Act,” said Jairam Ramesh, Union minister of state for environment and forest, while granting final forest clearance to Posco’s Rs 54,000-crore 12 million tonne integrated steel plant near Paradip in Orissa barely three months after putting 60 conditions pertaining to pollution control and the captive port in the vicinity of the plant. His volte-face is inexplicable. Ignoring resolutions passed by the gram sabhas of Dhinkia and Gobindapur that the Orissa government had failed to implement the Forest Rights Act, which promises tribals and other forest dwellers legal land rights, Ramesh said in his 2 May order granting clearance: “Faith and trust in what the State government says is an essential pillar of cooperative federalism which is why I rejected the option of an independent inquiry into the contradictory claims.” The enquiry committee appointed by his own ministry had described the project as an “environmental disaster in the making” and he is now saying that he was “not only doing the right thing but doing the thing right.” The Indian Council for Social Development in its summary report on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act has said: “All the key features of this legislation have been undermined by a combination of apathy and sabotage during the process of implementation. Unless immediate remedial measures are taken, instead of undoing the historical injustice to tribal and other traditional forest dwellers, the Act will have the opposite outcome of making them even more vulnerable to eviction and denial of their customary access to forests. The testimonies made it clear that this is not merely a result of bureaucratic failure; both the Central and the State governments have actively pursued policies that are in direct violation of the spirit and letter of the Act.” The project is said to bring prosperity and well-being to the people of Orissa through industrialisation based on exploitation of its natural resources and the UPA government is committed to remove all hurdles on its path. Coming up on 1,620 hectares of land spread over eight villages in Jagatsinghpur district, 1,253 hectares is forest land. A South Korean multi-national corporation, the Posco steel plant will have the combined capacity of Bhilai, Bokaro, Durgapur, Rourkela, Burnpur and Salem steel plants. Unmindful of the project’s irreversible and widespread social, environmental and ecological consequences, the Centre and the state government rushed through clearances. The Orissa government suppressed the fact that the area was home to about 4,000 tribal families comprising more than 20,000 members. Instead of certificates from gram sabhas, as required under the Forest Rights Act, certificates from the district magistrate were relied on while granting clearance. Instead of treating this massive project as a whole, it was broken up into smaller units for purposes of granting clearance. The steel mill is treated as three separate ones of four million tones each. The captive port, to come up at the ecologically sensitive Jatadhar creek, was fraudulently termed “minor” whereas it will be larger than the largest port in the country with a capacity to berth Capesize 170,000 DTW capacity ships 280 m in length. This would require 12 km channels and massive sea walls. The creek is an important nesting site for the endangered Olive Ridley turtles. When Ramesh appointed widely respected former bureaucrats and experts in two fact-finding committees to investigate all aspects of coastal regulations, forest diversion and environmental clearances given to Posco by his predecessor, A Raja of spectrum fame, there was hope he would not succumb to pressure from extra-constitutional authorities. As the committees exposed extensive illegalities and fraud in the environmental decision-making processes, Ramesh was “compelled” to brush aside these reports and take to Raja’s ways of decision-making. Ramesh must realise his role model is now in Tihar jail. Steel plants are not permitted in areas coming under Coastal Regulation Zones. A National Institute of Oceanography study, commissioned by Posco itself, found the plant falls within such zones. The plant will be constructed in an area raised by five metres by dumping millions of tonnes of sand dredged from the sea to protect it from supercyclones like the one that lashed Orissa coast in 1999 with wind speeds of 260 kmph and waves 5.6 m high in which nearly 15,000 people perished. The dredging is bound to increase vulnerability of surrounding areas. A road on stilts, a concrete structure 18 ft high and 80 ft wide, has been added to the CRZ draft notification which has the potential to devastate the coastline by opening it up to huge construction and real estate development. What has not been revealed so far in this joint venture is the attempt to short-sell India’s natural resources to corporate moneybags with attendant kickbacks for our political netas. A concerned citizen from Bangalore, AK Agrawal, has already made a complaint to the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Central Vigilance Commission, an important post allowed to remain vacant for months, against the Union steel minister, Virbhadra Singh, Orissa Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik and others, and a plea to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prevent the loot of minerals worth $50 billion by private profiteers in collusion with corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. Posco needs 600 million tonnes of iron ore for a capacity of 12 million tonnes of steel per annum. The current international price of iron ore is about Rs5,000 per tonne and is likely to go much higher in the next 30 to 50 years. The cost of mining, transport, cess, duties and royalty works out to about Rs 1,000 per tonne which means the cost comes to Rs 60,000 crore for 600 million tones. The profit on iron ore alone after meeting all costs will be Rs 240,000 crore per annum. Posco’s gain is loss to the nation. The project is to produce 12 million tonnes of steel per annum for 30 years with an option to renew for another 20 years. Hot rolled steel coil sells for Rs 30,000 per tonne and has a margin of about Rs 10,000 per tonne. The value addition almost doubles the profit. osco would bring foreign capital of Rs 54,000 crore, spread over a nine-year period. Steel is a decontrolled item and does not figure in the list of essential commodities. Giving valuable iron ore virtually free to the Korean MNC and making the Indian consumer pay international price for the finished product may be Manmohanomics socialism the UPA wants to usher in. The decision-makers involved in bestowing this largesse on Posco at the cost of the public are guilty of violation of Section 13(1)(d)(i) and (iii) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Their action also violates Article 39(b) and (c) of the Constitution. Though the MMDR Act of 1958 does permit allotment of minerals and iron ore to private parties, it has not been amended since the steep rice in iron ore price from the year 2000 onwards when profitability of one tonne of mined iron ore increased from Rs 50 to Rs 5,000. In view of this increase, it does not make sense for the Union and the State governments giving clearance to private parties and MNCs for mining rights on an effective royalty of paltry three per cent which does not even cover the cost to the exchequer for the resultant damages caused by mining and expenses incurred in collecting the royalty. The Supreme Court had held that the right of the Union and State governments to pre-empt the mineral wealth under Section 17 of the MMDR Act is paramount and supercedes the right of the private parties under Section 11. Therefore, it ill becomes of the Centre and the State to hand over highly profitable mines worth billions of dollars to foreign MNCs unless it is determined to scale new heights in corruption. 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