In February 2011, senior officials of the Ministry of Coal and Coal India ltd led by the Honorable Minister and also the MOS for Coal were engaged in a two-day offsite conference to address these issues. The record notes of the decisions taken were issued in due course. Close follow up of action taken against those decisions at the highest level should yield quick dividends. A similar exercise carried out in January 2007 with monitoring of key decisions by PMO for some time led to all round development of Coal India Ltd in 2008-09 & 2009-10 with growth of coal production moving up from 5.2% to 6.8%.
Constraints in land acquisition & delay in MOEF clearances pose major bottleneck. Therefore measures to ensure socially & legally acceptable mitigation of environmental & social effects of coal mining deserves topmost priority. Doubtlessly, coal mining degrades land, denudes forests & displaces people - tribals in many cases. While post mining land reclamation has been subjected to surveillance by satellite images in major opencast projects since 2008, there is no denying that large tracts of degraded land exists in coalfields with long history of coal mining. Some of these places may have left over coal seams amenable to extraction subsequently. But those without such mining potential must be taken up for fast track forestation in active association of the forest department of the concerned state. Progress in implementation of such projects must be recognized and rewarded by MOEF in terms of grant of clearance for diversion of low density or open forest areas liberally and expeditiously.
Coal companies have built a reasonably good track record of forestation. Some of the forests created on long stretch of over burden dumps, particularly in Singrauli MP, were classified as ‘No Go’ areas based on satellite images! However, the mining practice in large opencast mines generally create afforested over burden dumps on one hand with large craters on the other, which in some cases are converted into water bodies. The best practice to restore land into its original form to the extent possible, though deliberated quite often, is yet to be adopted as a policy measure. Adoption of best practice in this regard must be enforced not only to make the coal companies accountable for optimal land use but also to enable them avoid seeking more land for non mining purposes such as setting up resettlement villages, washeries etc. This approach may eventually make land acquisition and grant of MOEF clearances easier and faster.
Direct engagement with the community around the mining areas, within the frame work of the R&R policy of the company or the concerned state, whichever is more acceptable should be reinforced. Such engagement aimed at making irrevocable improvement in the quality of life, augmenting income & providing access to quality education, medical facilities, drinking water etc, with protection of identity & culture of the community, must be pursued with a degree of passion. There are live examples in the coalfields of the success achieved by adopting such practices. These should be recognized and rewarded. The best among these should be quickly identified & adopted as model for replication everywhere. Expenditure incurred by coal companies in developing & maintaining such model villages must be allowed set off against the liability of 26% post tax profit payout proposed in the Mining Bill. One such example is the Rajmahal project in Godda district of Jharkhand.
Annual targets must be set in each coal project for land acquisition, land reclamation, resettlement & rehabilitation of PAPs. The project management must be held accountable for meeting each of these targets with equal priority as of coal production. The corporate performance should be evaluated against the aggregate of these targets besides other parameters.
Constraints in land acquisition & delay in MOEF clearances pose major bottleneck. Therefore measures to ensure socially & legally acceptable mitigation of environmental & social effects of coal mining deserves topmost priority. Doubtlessly, coal mining degrades land, denudes forests & displaces people - tribals in many cases. While post mining land reclamation has been subjected to surveillance by satellite images in major opencast projects since 2008, there is no denying that large tracts of degraded land exists in coalfields with long history of coal mining. Some of these places may have left over coal seams amenable to extraction subsequently. But those without such mining potential must be taken up for fast track forestation in active association of the forest department of the concerned state. Progress in implementation of such projects must be recognized and rewarded by MOEF in terms of grant of clearance for diversion of low density or open forest areas liberally and expeditiously.
Coal companies have built a reasonably good track record of forestation. Some of the forests created on long stretch of over burden dumps, particularly in Singrauli MP, were classified as ‘No Go’ areas based on satellite images! However, the mining practice in large opencast mines generally create afforested over burden dumps on one hand with large craters on the other, which in some cases are converted into water bodies. The best practice to restore land into its original form to the extent possible, though deliberated quite often, is yet to be adopted as a policy measure. Adoption of best practice in this regard must be enforced not only to make the coal companies accountable for optimal land use but also to enable them avoid seeking more land for non mining purposes such as setting up resettlement villages, washeries etc. This approach may eventually make land acquisition and grant of MOEF clearances easier and faster.
Direct engagement with the community around the mining areas, within the frame work of the R&R policy of the company or the concerned state, whichever is more acceptable should be reinforced. Such engagement aimed at making irrevocable improvement in the quality of life, augmenting income & providing access to quality education, medical facilities, drinking water etc, with protection of identity & culture of the community, must be pursued with a degree of passion. There are live examples in the coalfields of the success achieved by adopting such practices. These should be recognized and rewarded. The best among these should be quickly identified & adopted as model for replication everywhere. Expenditure incurred by coal companies in developing & maintaining such model villages must be allowed set off against the liability of 26% post tax profit payout proposed in the Mining Bill. One such example is the Rajmahal project in Godda district of Jharkhand.
Annual targets must be set in each coal project for land acquisition, land reclamation, resettlement & rehabilitation of PAPs. The project management must be held accountable for meeting each of these targets with equal priority as of coal production. The corporate performance should be evaluated against the aggregate of these targets besides other parameters.
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