Reduce mining area, set aside 26 per cent profit for affected people in the new bill, demands MM&P

By Our Representative
Mines, Minerals & People (MM&P), a national alliance of over 200 mining affected communities and support groups, has taken strong exception to a new provision in the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015, which seeks to increase the area limits for license and mining lease, without specifying any ceiling. The current ceiling is 10 km.
Saying that this would spell "a death-knell for people living in mineral rich regions", MM&P insists, "Even developed mining economies like Australia are reducing mining lease areas to avoid non-mineralised zones in lease areas. In Australia, maximum lease area allowed was 10 square km till 2006 and now it is limited to the area of ore bodies in a prospected site plus infrastructure for mineral concession."
The Bill, passed in the Lok Sabha and awaiting Rajya Sabha nod, is before Parliament's select committee for review. MM&P president Ravi Rebbapragda and general secretary Ashok Shrimali, a Gujarat-based activist, are seeking intervention by committee members not to allow the bill to be passed in Parliament in its current form. The bill seeks to convert a recently-promulgated ordinance by the Government of India.
Also taking exception to the proposal to set up a District Mineral Foundation (DMF) in the Bill, the MM&P says, with this, "the social commitment towards development of affected communities has been significantly watered down." It adds, "It represents moving away from the concept of benefit sharing", which was there in earlier versions of June 2010 Bill, which allowed "provision of granting 26 per cent ownership".
In fact, according to MM&P, "the MMDR bill is completely silent on obtaining consent from the communities before mining operations are initiated especially in tribal regions", demanding, "All applications for mining concessions should be put before the Gram Sabha. As a practice, Gram Sabha should be convened to discuss the proposals and accept objections for at least 30 days thereafter."
MM&P further objects to extending the duration of a mining lease to 50 years. "This would affect effective and strict scrutiny. This will have serious implications to intergenerational equity. Ideally the duration of lease should be 10 years with provisions for renewal only on strict compliance", it believes. Till now, a mining lease was allowed for a maximum of 30 years and a minimum of 20 years that could be renewed for 20 years.
Then, MM&P says, the bill "does not include definitions of affected persons and reasonable compensation", says MM&P, adding, there is a need to clearly define ‘affected persons’ that captures "the social, cultural and environmental impacts. It should not only include people losing lands to a mining project, but also people whose livelihood is affected." And, the compensation amount should be linked to inflation.
These changes are needed, according to MM&P, because the states "richest" in mineral resources are also amongst India’s poorest. "Chhattisgarh’s mineral contribution to GDP is 12 per cent but it reports the second highest incidence of poverty amongst all Indian states (47 per cent), after Bihar. "An estimated 1.64 lakh of forestland has been diverted; 90 per cent of India’s coal and 80 per cent of other minerals are found in areas inhabited by tribals".

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World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

"Misleading" satellite images being shared on Balakot surgical strike on Jaish camp

By Dr Vinay Kate*
With every passing day more questions are being raised about the surgical strike India did in Balakot as a response to Pulwama attacks. So far the Indian media has claimed mass casulaty of 300+ terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad in this surgical strike, but there is hardly any report from foreign media about the same.

Extreme repression, corporate loot, cultural genocide "characterise" India's tribal belt

Counterview Desk
As Lok Sabha polls approach, there is considerable ferment in one section of the population -- India's Adivasis, forming about 8.6 per cent of India's population. Things became particularly critical following the February 14, 2019 Supreme Court order, allegedly seeking to evict lakhs of tribals from their forest lands.

Industry in India "barely growing", export growth 0%, whither moral anchors?

Counterview Desk
In a sharp critique of the Modi government, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), one of world renowned economist Prof Kaushik Basu, who is Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, has told students at the IIM-A’s 54th Annual Convocation on March 16, 2019 that they have a “special responsibility” on their shoulders, “the responsibility to reject narrow sectarianism, uphold scientific thinking, openness to new ideas, and freedom of speech.”

Gujarat model? Industrial effluents "invade" borewells, discharge coloured water in farms

By Rajiv Shah
In a major embarrassment for Gujarat model, of the 21 samples taken by officials of the state government's environmental watchdog Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in two villages of Vadodara district and analyzed by its laboratory in Gandhinagar, the state capital, to find out pollution level in groundwater, 16 were assessed as highly contaminated – these were, in fact, found to be discharging reddish, brownish, reddish, or yellowish water.

Refugees as criminals? US govt report blames Amit Shah for calling Bangladeshis termites

Counterview Desk
The chapter “Freedom of Movement” of the US State Department’s “India 2018 Human Rights Report”, released recently, has criticized BJP chief Amit Shah for terming alleged Bangladeshis who may be in Assam as “termites”, because their names were struck down from the list of National Register of Citizens, under preparation in the state.
Pointing out that four million residents were excluded from Assam’s final draft list, leading to “uncertainty over the status of these individuals, many of whose families had lived in the state for several generations”, the report regrets, the Indian law does not even contain the term “refugee,” treating refugees like Rohingiyas as “any other foreigners.”
“Undocumented physical presence in the country is a criminal offense. Persons without documentation were vulnerable to forced returns and abuse”, the report says.
Text of the Freedom of Movement chapter: The law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, a…

Congress would win just 9 of 26 Lok Sabha seats: Gujarat Assembly segment-wise analysis

By Rajiv Shah
Even as the Congress plans its first working committee meet in Gujarat on February 28 after an almost 58 year gap, there is reason to wonder what is in store for India’s grand old party in a state which has been long been a BJP bastion – in fact ever since mid-1990s. Ahead of the then assembly polls in late 2012, talking with me, a senior Gujarat Congress leader, currently Rajya Sabha MP, frankly said he saw no reason why Congress would win.

"Pro-corporate" Supreme Court order on FRA would further marginalize Adivasis

By VS Roy David, JP Raju*
For millions of Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers February 13, 2019 will go down in history as the day of apocalypse. This is like the proverbial Black Friday where millions of most marginalized people of India were ordered by malicious anti-people draconian Supreme Court order depriving them the life and livelihood by evicting them from their habitats.

Financial inclusion? Not micro-loans; India's poor "need" investment in health, education

By Moin Qazi*
India has grown into a global powerhouse. Its economy is soaring but the picture on the ground is still quite arid. The green shoots that you see are only a patch of its landscape. Most Indians are hapless victims of inequity. India is one country where intense poverty abounds in the shadow of immense wealth.

India, Pakistan told to eliminate nuclear weapons: N-war "would kill" 2 billion

Counterview Desk
The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a non-partisan federation of national medical organizations in 64 countries, representing tens of thousands of doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned citizens, claiming to share the common goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation, has warned that “an unprecedented global catastrophe” awaits the globe against the backdrop of warmongering in India and Pakistan.

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