Poor Conscientious Jairam may be in trouble already .3 days elapsed between
his saying " Their faculties are no world class.IIT sIIMs are good only
'cause the students entering are ." And the Lawyer 'Education Minister' Kapil
Sibal ran Jairam downin yesterday's Press Conf. Somebody asked 'Why did you
not voice one word in protest in last 3 days ? Lame reply: "I was in
Ahmedabad!!" as if in deep outer space---
“Tearing
through the Water Landscape: Evaluating the environmental and social
consequences of POSCO project in Odisha, India”
On
2nd May 2011, Indian Environment and
Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh finally approved the diversion of over 3,000
acres of forest land, of the 4,000 acres demanded, for a steel-power-port
complex of the POSCO India project.
Earlier,
on 31 January 2011, Ramesh had approved the environmental and coastal
regulation zone clearances that the project had secured in 2007, even though
all these clearances were obtained by fraud, and thus illegal, as proved by two
independent investigative committees that he appointed last year.
Forest
Rights denied is violation of Fundamental Rights
The
diversion of forests for non-industrial use by POSCO was based on “categorical
assurances” that Jairam Ramesh sought from the Odisha Government, that the
Forest Rights Act did not apply to communities affected directly and indirectly
by POSCO. The Odisha Government gave him this assurance on the basis of
fraudulent claims that there were no non-traditional forest dwellers and tribes
in the POSCO project affected villages of Jagatsinghpur, thus making this
massive land transfer merely an administrative arrangement. Rather cheaply, the
Odisha Government accused Shishir Mahpatra, the Sarpanch of Dhinkia Panchayat,
of fraud in providing resolutions of Palli Sabhas that demonstrated that not
only were there OTFDs and tribals in the project affected area, but that they
had been dependent on the region's natural resources, particularly forests, for
centuries. Ramesh did not hesitate for a moment and question this claim by the
Odisha Government. On the basis of this uncertainty in fact, he proceeded to
support the POSCO clearance claiming it was of “strategic importance” to India.
Authorising
the loot of India's natural resources:
As
the single largest industrial foreign direct investment ever in India (with a
capital cost of Rs. 51,000 crores at 2005 prices), POSCO's ambitions in India
aren't merely of location a steel-power-port complex in the ecologically
senstive Jagatsinghpur district. In fact, company officials have submitted
before the investigative committees that they will not invest in the steel-port
complex if permission to mine for iron ore in over 6,100 acres of dense jungle
in the Kandadhar Hills in Sundergarh district is not granted. Most of this iron
ore mined is for export without any local value addition, and thus will serve
the economic interest of South Korea and POSCO stockholders – mainly American
banks and Warren Buffet – one of the world's richest's individuals. POSCO has
also demanded a dedicated railway line to the port – that means additional land
demands. Further the project requires at least 2,000 acres for a township for
its employees, and diversion of drinking water from the Jobra barrage for
industrial use. All this has been agreed to by the Odisha Government when the
project MOU was signed in 2005, but the people have been kept in the dark of
the real consequences of such loot of India's non-renewable natural resources.
The
Making of a 'Right-less People' by Jairam RameshOver 13,000 acres is merely the
demand of land for realising POSCO's dream venture in India. Thousands of
families will be dislocated, and suffer irreparable damage to their lives and
livelihoods. It is time we appreciated that this
steel-power-port-township-mining project is the single largest industrial
venture conceived in recent memory, and that such scale of investment will be
done only because we are gifting highly expensive and excellent iron ore for
POSCO to make stupendous profits. There is absolutely no benefit for India in
this deal, and what POSCO will leave behind, if they succeed at all, is a lot
of fly ash, destroyed ecologically sensitive coastal and forest environments
and thousands of people in misery. To help appreciate the full consequences of
the POSCO investment in India, Environment Support Group, a not-for-profit
public interest research, training, campaign and advocacy initiative, has
produced a study entitled “Tearing through the Water Landscape: Evaluating the
environmental and
social consequences of POSCO project in Odisha, India”, which is co-authored by
Leo Saldanha
and Bhargavi Rao. This study was undertaken at the request of POSCO Pratirodh
Sangram Samithi (POSCO Project Resistance Movement), leading the opposition
against the POSCO project. The study reveals on the basis of extensive review
of historical, ecological, social and economic evidence that Jairam Ramesh's
support for POSCO is nothing but a highly condemnable act that legitimises
fraud and corruption in environmental decision making. As a result, the study
reveals that Ramesh has today become the architect of one of India's greatest
planned disasters that begins its ominous initiative by turning the affected
communities into a 'rightless people', as their fundamental rights have been
snatched on the basis of “faith and trust” in Odisha Government's lies.
A
copy of this study is accessible at www.esgindia.org
Environment
Support Group, 1572, 36th Cross, Banashankari II Stage, Bangalore
560070. INDIA
Tel:
91-80-26713559~61 Email: e...@esgindia.org Web: www.esgindia.orgEmail of
authors of this study: Leo
Saldanha: l...@esgindia.org
Bhargavi
S. Rao: bharg...@esgindia.org --
{It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick
society. - Jiddu Krishnamurti}
Leo Saldanha
[Environmental, Social Justice and Governance Initiatives]
Environment Support Group - Trust
1572, 36th Cross, Ring Road
Banashankari II Stage
Bangalore 560070. INDIA
Tel: 91-80-26713559-61
Fax/Voice: 91-80-26713316
Email: l...@esgindia.org
Blog: http://leoonpublicmatters.blogspot.com/
Web: www.esgindia.org
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