World Bank approved $800 for Amravati despite negative internal view, court, NGO objections: CFA

By A Representative

Despite over 170 representatives by civil society organisations, hailing from 17 countries, all of them written to the World Bank’s executive directors calling upon the top banker to defer its approval, even as seeking further detailed studies, the Bank’s board of directors has approved $800 million for the Amaravati Capital City project.
Ironically, the Bank’s own Inspection Panel in 2019 had called for investigation into the project, and the Andhra Pradesh High Court had called the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) for its “prima facie illegal and non-compliant” of the National Green Tribunal orders. The Panel had sought strict adherence to the Bank’s policies, including ensuring meaningful, transparent consultations with all affected communities, before the project is approved.
Bringing this to light, the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) said, the civil society groups had also asked the World Bank to resist political pressures from the Government of India and take a courageous stand in defence of the rights of people, the environment, and the Bank’s stated commitments to sustainable development and social equity.
In spite of this, “the Board of Directors going ahead with the approval of the project reeks of disregard for the judicial system of the country, undermining its own accountability mechanisms and disrespecting the rights and concerns of the people”, CFA regretted in an email alert to Counterview.
According to CFA, the approval should be seen in the light of the World Bank having a historically contentious legacy in India, “marked by projects such as the Narmada Dam, the Singrauli thermal power project, the Tata Mundra coal plant, the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, and the Himalayan dams, among others”.
Warning that this project “is poised to be yet another stain on the World Bank's legacy”, CFA reported, this project was first presented to the World Bank in 2017, when the Bank approved a loan of US $300 million. However, before the financing details were finalised, the political landscape in the state changed, and the project was shelved in 2019.
Five years later, the same political party that proposed the project returned to power and sought World Bank financing again, said CFA, pointing out, in 2017, local communities impacted by the project raised their concerns with the World Bank’s Inspection Panel (IPN), which submitted its Third Report and Recommendation in March 2019.
“The Panel’s findings highlighted significant issues with the project, particularly regarding the violation of the Bank’s Involuntary Resettlement Policy (OP/BP 4.12). These issues, including inadequate (and illusionary, as the Andhra Pradesh High Court has observed in its order of March 2022) compensation, lack of livelihood restoration, and the absence of necessary consultations, remain unresolved to this day”, CFA asserted.
The IPN’s 2019 Report made several critical recommendations, noted CFA, “including the need for a thorough investigation into the alleged harm caused to local communities, particularly landless labourers who lost their livelihoods years ago.”
”The Panel also raised concerns over the LPS, noting that it had never been implemented at this scale and could set a dangerous precedent for future development projects. The adequacy of compensation, particularly whether it meets the replacement value, was also questioned”, it added.

It continued, “The Andhra Pradesh High Court held the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS), under which the State government acquired lands from farmers, to be prima facie illegal. As a result of the flip-flop decisions of the State government in the choice of location of the capital city at Amaravati since the Bank considered the project in 2017, the farmers who gave up lands under the LPS have been subject to irreparable loss.”
According to CFA, “In the absence of a formal statutory notification issued by Government of India under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 on the location of the capital city as on date, the farmers continue to face severe uncertainties in the matter of valuation of their precious lands”, underlining, how in the past 10 years have demonstrated the serious gaps in LPS”, rocked as it was by protests by LPS farmers on the streets for more than 1,600 days with over 500 criminal cases having been filed, including on women LPS farmers.
“Despite this, the project is being pushed forward under an increasingly authoritarian political climate, both at the state and national levels”, CFA said.
The two crucial judicial orders pronounced by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) referred to by CFA had wanted the State government to put in place mechanisms for compliance with environmental norms in implementing the Amaravati project in a sustainable manner, even as requiring that the State government should conserve the floodplains of River Krishna. The NGT orders “are yet to be complied with by the State government”, it commented.
In the light of this, CFA demanded that, despite the approval, the Bank can “still hold on to its lending until detailed studies are conducted, completed with the High Court and National Green Tribunal judgments and adherence to the Bank’s own policies vis-a-vis adequate consultation with affected communities and adequately compensating the people for their loss.”

Comments

India's chemical industry: The missing piece of Atmanirbhar Bharat

By N.S. Venkataraman* Rarely a day passes without the Prime Minister or a cabinet minister speaking about the importance of Atmanirbhar Bharat . The Start-up India scheme is a pillar in promoting this vision, and considerable enthusiasm has been reported in promoting start-up projects across the country. While these developments are positive, Atmanirbhar Bharat does not seem to have made significant progress within the Indian chemical industry . This is a matter of high concern that needs urgent and dispassionate analysis.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Remembering a remarkable rebel: Personal recollections of Comrade Himmat Shah

By Rajiv Shah I first came in contact with Himmat Shah in the second half of the 1970s during one of my routine visits to Ahmedabad , my maternal hometown. I do not recall the exact year, but at that time I was working in Delhi with the CPI -owned People’s Publishing House (PPH) as its assistant editor, editing books and writing occasional articles for small periodicals. Himmatbhai — as I would call him — worked at the People’s Book House (PBH), the CPI’s bookshop on Relief Road in Ahmedabad.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

As 2024 draws nearer, threatening signs appear of more destructive wars

By Bharat Dogra The four years from 2020 to 2023 have been very difficult and high risk years for humanity. In the first two years there was a pandemic and such severe disruption of social and economic life that countless people have not yet recovered from its many-sided adverse impacts. In the next two years there were outbreaks of two very high-risk wars which have worldwide implications including escalation into much wider conflicts. In addition there were highly threatening signs of increasing possibility of other very destructive wars. As the year 2023 appears to be headed for ending on a very grim note, there are apprehensions about what the next year 2024 may bring, and there are several kinds of fears. However to come back to the year 2020 first, the pandemic harmed and threatened a very large number of people. No less harmful was the fear epidemic, the epidemic of increasing mental stress and the cruel disruption of the life and livelihoods particularly among the weaker s...

Celebrating 125 yr old legacy of healthcare work of missionaries

Vilas Shende, director, Mure Memorial Hospital By Moin Qazi* Central India has been one of the most fertile belts for several unique experiments undertaken by missionaries in the field of education and healthcare. The result is a network of several well-known schools, colleges and hospitals that have woven themselves into the social landscape of the region. They have also become a byword for quality and affordable services delivered to all sections of the society. These institutions are characterised by committed and compassionate staff driven by the selfless pursuit of improving the well-being of society. This is the reason why the region has nursed and nurtured so many eminent people who occupy high positions in varied fields across the country as well as beyond. One of the fruits of this legacy is a more than century old iconic hospital that nestles in the heart of Nagpur city. Named as Mure Memorial Hospital after a British warrior who lost his life in a war while defending his cou...

Farewell to Robin Smith, England’s Lionhearted Warrior Against Pace

By Harsh Thakor* Robin Smith, who has died at the age of 62, was among the most adept and convincing players of fast bowling during an era when English cricket was in decline and pace bowling was at its most lethal. Unwavering against the tormenting West Indies pace attack or the relentless Australians, Smith epitomised courage and stroke-making prowess. His trademark shot, an immensely powerful square cut, made him a scourge of opponents. Wearing a blue England helmet without a visor or grille, he relished pulling, hooking and cutting the quicks.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Jallianwala: Dark room documents reveal multi-religious, multi-caste martyrdom

By Shamsul Islam* Today India has turned into a grazing field for all kinds of religious bigots. The RSS/BJP rulers are openly declaring their commitment to turn India into a Hindu state, where Muslims and Christians have no place, and Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism can survive only as sects of Hinduism. However, it this was the scenario 100 years back when the British rulers perpetrated one of the worst massacres in the modern history -- the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. People of India shackled by the most powerful imperialist power of the world, Britain, presented a heroic united resistance. It is not hearsay but proved by contemporary official, mostly British documents. These amazing documents were part of British archives which became National Archives of India after Independence. As a pleasant surprise these documents were made public to mark the 75th commemoration of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre as part of an exhibition titled, 'Archives and Jallianwala Bagh: A Saga of ...

Search This Blog