Protests and Blockages - Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality - page 132

jects involving bauxite for aluminium and iron ore for steel have been able to start for two
decades or more, and large-scale successes are rare. Plans by groups such as Essar, Ved-
anta, Jindal and Bhushan have hit problems with environmental approvals, or have been
involved in controversies over coal mine allocations, though Tata Steel is nearing com-
pletion at its once-troubled Kalinganagar site. In total, the state government has signed 93
memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with companies since 2000, mostly for the steel
and power sector. 30 Out of 50 steel MoUs, only 30, mostly small and medium projects, had
been partially or fully completed and they were producing just a tenth of the envisaged
83.66m tonnes per annum capacity by the middle of 2012. Out of 29 power projects, only
about six had been completed.
The Odisha bureaucracy is notoriously corrupt and appears to operate with scant concern
for the wishes of Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister for the past 13 years, who is conse-
quently not able to fulfil project implementation promises he makes to big investors. 'In
other states, if a company pays up at the top level, it usually gets delivery,' says Biswajit
Mohanty, an environmental activist and freedom of information campaigner, who runs the
Wildlife Society of Orissa. 'But in Odisha, the lower-level bureaucrats ensure that projects
are blocked unless they too are rewarded.'
Illegal mining, together with poor environmental protection, is widespread among well-
known companies as well as smaller concerns. Tata Steel was among 103 iron ore mining
companies asked by the state government in November 2012 to 'show cause' why it
was exceeding approved production. 31 In 2009, Jharkhand-based Rungta Mines, run by
Siddharth Rungta, who was then the president of the nation-wide Federation of Mining In-
dustries, was named as a serious violator in reports of illegal mining. 32 The CAG made
more allegations of unlawful extraction of iron ore, manganese ore and coal in excess of
approved limits and without prior environment clearances in March 2013. 33 A commission
was set up by the central government in November 2010 to report on illegal mining across
the country. M.B. Shah, a retired Supreme Court judge who headed the commission, said in
March 2013 that the Odisha state government had 'taken some steps' to curb the activities
after his commission started work. 34
Foreign groups such as Norsk Hydro of Norway, Alcan of Canada and Continental Re-
sources of the US became tired of costly and frustrating delays in the mid-1990s and left
India. Resistance has frequently come from tribal and other communities protecting their
homelands, often encouraged and organized by NGOs. It has sometimes been alleged that
multinational companies finance these NGOs in order to stem the flow of bauxite into
world markets from India and other rival countries. Some reports suggest that local opposi-
tion to bauxite mining in the state only began after India started exporting the mineral, thus
triggering international interest and resistance.