DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Govt. Accused of Favouring TNCs Over Tribals

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Mar 7 2001 (IPS) - The global hunger for aluminium is fuelling conflicts between trans-national corporations (TNCs) and India’s tribal communities living in areas with rich deposits of the industrially- valuable mineral.

In their anxiety to attract foreign investment, India’s federal and provincial governments are being accused of siding with the TNCs, ignoring the rights of the indigenous people, which are protected by the country’s constitution.

Earlier this year, three people were killed when police opened fire on villagers in eastern Orissa state who were protesting peacefully against the destruction of their farms by a bauxite (aluminium ore) company.

The foreign-owned, Utkal Alumina International runs a mine and alumina plant in the Rayagada district of eastern Orissa.

India’s National Human Rights Commission has announced a probe into the police firing in Rayagada on the basis of a preliminary report by the leading rights group, the People’s Union of Civil Liberties.

The civil liberties group has alleged that the firing was part of a conspiracy to facilitate extraction of bauxite by Utkal Alumina, in which the Norwegian, Norsk Hydro holds a 45-percent stake and the Canadian Alcan another 35 percent.

The remaining 20 percent are held by Indian Aluminium (Indal), a subsidiary of Alcan, which itself merged last year with AluSuisse and Pechiney to form the giant APA global conglomerate.

A 100-percent export enterprise, Utkal Alumina was set up to feed the growing world demand for aluminium, which is projected to touch 25 million tonnes in the year 2005.

Following the firing incident, the aluminium company admitted that there was “strong and uncompromising opposition” to its activities in the area.

It announced these would be suspended till “acceptance by a majority of local stakeholders is manifested and a dialogue established with all organised groups that in a significant way represent these stakeholders.”

Conflicts are also brewing in south-eastern coastal Andhra Pradesh state, which borders Orissa. The provincial government in Andhra Pradesh has openly extended invitations to foreign mining companies to exploit its bauxite deposits.

This despite a four-year-old ruling by India’s apex court, which upheld constitutional provisions barring the sale or lease of tribal lands to non-tribals or to private companies for mining or industrial operations.

According to the Supreme Court ruling, mining on tribal lands, which are notified as Scheduled Areas, can only be done by government agencies or a cooperative of tribals and must comply with forest and environment laws.

Andhra Pradesh even appealed to the Supreme Court to modify the order to avoid having to cancel mining contracts already entered into. But the court dismissed the appeal a year ago.

Meanwhile, in Orissa, tribal rights activists have demanded the cancellation of leases by the state government to a big government aluminium company, which has now been privatised.

Political foes are accusing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ruling alliance of neglecting its constitutional duty to protect tribal interests. Both Andhra Pradesh and Orissa are ruled by members of the Vajpayee’s alliance.

The Indian government is also caught up in a big national controversy over the privatisation of a giant aluminium company.

Ajit Jogi, a senior leader of the main opposition Congress party, who is himself a tribal and currently chief minister of the newly- created, central Indian Chattisgarh state, adjoining Orissa, is accusing the federal government of violating the constitution.

Jogi has joined a sit-in protest by company employees against the privatisation of the federal government’s Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO).

Some 6,000 BALCO employees have struck work to protest the sale of BALCO’s majority shares to Sterlite Industries, a privately-owned, Indian company.

The Vajpayee government is being accused of having sold the shares cheap to Sterlite in return for “kickbacks”, allegedly paid to key ruling alliance leaders.

The sit-in protest began immediately after Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie announced early March, the sale of 51 percent of BALCO shares to Sterlite for 120 million U.S. dollars as part of government plans to privatise major public sector companies.

Jogi has said he is ready to disclose to a parliamentary panel, the names of ruling alliance leaders who received money from Sterlite. The chief minister said he even had details of bank accounts into which the money was paid.

“The people are asking the prime minister and the Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie how a plant worth 1.2 billion dollars was sold for a mere 125 million dollars,” said Jogi.

Both Vajpayee and Shourie have declared in parliament and at press briefings that the BALCO deal was carried out with “transparency”.

“If chief ministers refuse to allow new managements to enter their states it will only slow down the disinvestment process besides striking at the roots of the federal principles of India,” said Shourie.