Last week top officials of the Jharkhand government tried to convince tribals just outside Ranchi to surrender land for an Indian Institute of Management campus. The yet-to-be-built IIM campus is a showcase project for the state government, which is also developing a circular road around the capital city to link with the campus.
State chief secretary AK Singh said he would offer sweeteners like a non-skilled jobs in the campus for those displaced. ?It is the same model used for projects like Bokaro steel plant under SAIL and Heavy Engineering Corporation in the 1960s,? says Dni Barla, convenor of a tribal group?resisting land acquisition for a 12 million tonne steel plant by the Arcelor Mittal group in the state.
The IIM project has gathered pace but from the time state was carved out in 2000, it has not added any Industrial Training Institutes(ITI), which are the best means to generate skilled employment for its largely tribal population. Principal secretary (labour) in Jharkhand government, Vishnu Kumar told FE he intends to float expression of interest in August to invite big industrial units and NGOs to start ITIs in the state.
As per Central government data the number of ITIs and tool rooms in the state is just 101, compared with 653 in Andhra Pradesh and even neighbouring Orissa which has 521.
Instead of these projects, many of the top state politicians and senior officials have spent time fighting court battles to stay out of jail on corruption charges. This has created a fertile ground for the naxalites to step in brazenly.
Driving down the most important highway of the state between Ranchi and Jamshedpur, officials warned us to avoid night travel. Airline passengers from the last flight from Kolkata have to often cool their heels in Ranchi till dawn. To get over the problem, Tata Steel has tied up with Deccan Charters to run three daily flights between Jamshedpur and Kolkata from August 16.
The scam list is very impressive. Other than former chief minister Madhu Koda on an estimated Rs 3,200 crore mining scam, it includes current chief secretary Singh, who has been served 17 notices including those by the Supreme Court for a corruption case, for which he has also served a brief jail term. The case was filed during his stint as managing director of the Bihar State Financial Corporation. The former Director General of Police, VD Ram, too is charged for withdrawing Rs 5.60 crore in cash from the state treasury. While there is a public interest litigation against him in the Jharkhand High Court since December last year, he has no filed any counter affidavit. He curtly told FE, ?It is yet to filed, it is the government which has to file it?. Ram is now the DG (home guard & fire brigade services) at Ranchi.
Dayamani Barla, convenor of the Adivasi Moolvasi Astiva Raksha Manch, which has strong Naxal affiliations is therefore convinced the environment is not right for the tribals to give up land for industry. She argues when adivasis surrender land the most they could hope for is employment for a single person from the family. But the land they give up could feed them for generations.
Despite the example of the Tata plant at Jamshedpur that has played a catalytic role in the surrounding areas, Barla is sure that industrialisation in the area would mean splitting the tribal unity or ‘collectiveness’. All those who have been displaced are slum dwellers now. From farmers, these people have become bonded labourers and rickshaw pullers, rooted out of their lifestyle and culture?.
She concedes the absence of reputed industry groups could have encouraged illegal mining and also abetted government corruption but is unfazed. For instance of the 12,000 hectares, the Mittal group requires for its plant at Khunti and Gumla districts of Jharkhand, it has so far got only 1,586 acres. In the same area, illegal miners often paying off the Naxals have taken over stretches of iron ore deposits, turning those areas into virtual no go areas. Reports of Naxalites controlling mining in some areas is not absolutely false. But we need to see why such things happen and who give indulgence to it? Barla told FE.
And for the party that has been in the government the longest, these are non-issues. ?Industrialisation or illegal mining is not a political issue in the state,? says Binod Pandey, president youth wing of Shibu Soren led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. ?A stable political government is the only issue with which all the political parties are on the field now and our main opponent is the bureaucracy,? he adds. His opponent, Raghuvar Das, the BJP state president is more categorical. The Naxals are extremists and they have to be routed. But their threat is limited. Illegal mining comes in second.