Mining – India 1
1. Vedanta on way to being leader in metal sector 1
2. Change in BRT design has Jindal Steel complaining 3
3. JSW weighs Oz mining JV 4
4. CPI to continue fight against POSCO and Vedanta - Mr Bardhan 5
5. Coal mining in India 6
6. India and Kazakh talk joint-venture 8
7. Caution delays miners’ rescue 9
Mining – International 10
8. A Chilean town withers in free market for water 10
9. Policy on compensation for coalmine victims soon 13
10. Sand mining opponents take battle back to court 15
11. Opponents of uranium mine find allies at the Beach 16
12. Over hundred Uranium prospecting licences issued 18
13. Other Voices: Many myths surround local gold mine project 19
14. Last coal mine in Vermilion County closes 21
15. Govt extends review of Chinalco-Rio deal 22
16. Dragon Energy eyes new mining projects 23
Other News – India 24
17. Tribe to boycott hearing 24
18. Child rights - an invisible, yet important vote bank 25
19. Twice-a-day meal scheme for rescued child labourers 28
20. Location of SEZs in India not strategic: World Bank 29
21. Climate change posers 29
Mining – India
Vedanta on way to being leader in metal sector
Kunal Bose / Mumbai March 16, 2009, 0:13 IST
Vedanta group Chairman Anil Agarwal is a brave heart. The global financial crisis, which triggered a meltdown in metals, does not seem to have dimmed his ambition to acquire leadership in aluminium, copper and zinc.
When Vedanta acquired a controlling stake in Sesa Goa, a private-sector producer and iron ore, from Japan’s Mitsui in 2007, it was rightly seen as a declaration of the group’s intention to occupy space in the steel sector at the appropriate time. It can be discounted that Vedanta’s proposed steel project in Orissa has been shelved.
‘Fortune favours the brave’, goes the saying. Agarwal has experienced this more than once.
After he acquired the majority stake in aluminium maker Balco in December 2001, the indifferently performing Balco’s capacity rose by 250,000 tonnes to 350,000 tonnes.
Who could have foreseen that after Sterlite, a Vedanta group company, took control of a non-performing Hindustan Zinc in April 2002, the entity would would come to own a zinc-lead capacity of 1 million tonnes by 2010.
Vedanta group is now well on course to achieve the minimum declared capacity of 1 million tonnes for every non-ferrous metal in its portfolio.
It also has grand plans for Sesa Goa which owns iron ore reserves of 180 million tonnes.
The experience of steel makers here, not to speak of mining groups in acquiring assets overcoming the maze of regulatory hurdles, is not at all encouraging. However, no one doubts Vedanta’s capacity to pull a rabbit out of its hat. This is specially so after Sterlite sewing up the $1.1-billion Asarco deal.
Tata Steel must now be regretting that it acquired Corus in April 2007 by paying the full price in a booming market. So also Hindalco for its acquisition of the world’s largest aluminium rolling company Novelis.
In this regard too, luck has been on the side of Vedanta. Initially, Vedanta made an offer of $2.6 billion for Asarco. But that was a year ago, when copper was commanding over double today’s price. See how much cheaper Asarco assets has now become for Vedanta.
But why should Vedanta be going ahead with all its expansion programmes here and abroad when we find leading metal groups, including ArcelorMittal, Rio Tinto Alcan and Chinalco doing some serious production cuts and shelving expansion programmes till economic activity gains in pace.
According to one school of thinking, if funds are available, a difficult proposition when banks are being bailed out by governments, then a group like Vedanta should not wait for the next spurt in demand to create new capacity. Vedanta officials claim that the group, which is having Rs 30,000 crore in cash, remains committed to investing as much as Rs 60,000 crore in new projects.
In Vedanta’s capacity creation package, alumina and aluminium take the cake. At this point, India’s total aluminium capacity is 1.3 million tonnes in which the share of Vedanta is 385,000 tonnes. But here account has not been taken of Vedanta’s 500,000-tonne smelter in Orissa’s Jharsuguda, which is now getting commissioned.
In a move to make best use of Orissa’s bauxite and coal deposits, Vedanta has decided to finally create 1.6 million tonnes of smelting capacity at Jharsuguda to be backed by a 5 million tonne alumina refinery at Lanjigarh and a power complex of 3,750 MW. At the same time, Balco’s aluminium capacity will be raised to 1 million tonnes.
If Vedanta has its way then all this capacity will be on ground by 2013. But we have seen how time consuming it is proving for Vedanta to start mining operation at Lanjigarh where it owns bauxite deposit of 75 million tonnes but also has the government promise of an equally large deposit nearby.
But all this is to support its 1 million tonne refinery, which sadly now has to be fed with costly bauxite from third party mines. This will be the case till such time Vedanta has got the final set of environmental clearances post Supreme Court assent to start mining.
Building a 5-million-tonne refinery at Lanjigarh will be justified provided linkages to bauxite deposits lasting about 50 years could be acquired. Orissa, where most of Vedanta’s aluminium action is to unfold, has as much as 1.7 billion tonnes of the country’s total 3.3 billion tonnes of bauxite reserves. Even after allotment/earmarking of deposits for different groups, Orissa is left with free bauxite reserves of 640 million tonnes.
Vedanta says it has strong claims to free deposits because of the world’s single largest smelter it is committed to build at Jharsuguda. But whether Vedanta will get all the bauxite it needs will be a toss of dice.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/vedantaway-to-being-leader-in-metal-sector/351900/
Change in BRT design has Jindal Steel complaining
Aanchal Bansal
Posted: Mar 16, 2009 at 0024 hrs IST
New Delhi With bus lane shifted to the left on the new stretch from Moolchand to Delhi Gate, the company will have little scope for work on the shelters
Even as work on the extension of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor from Moolchand to Delhi Gate has been expedited post Assembly elections, the corridor continues to remain in the news for the wrong reasons.
After the first stretch of the corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand invited backlash from all quarters, the Delhi government had around ten months ago decided to ‘experiment’ with an alternate design of keeping the bus lane on the left instead of along the central verge. The change in design has now led to the transport department and Jindal Stainless Steel locking horns over the bus shelters to be installed along the new stretch.
If sources are to be believed, the company has expressed reservations about its scope of work in the new design and is contemplating pulling out of the venture.
Unlike the bus shelters along the 5.8-km existing stretch, the ones along the new stretch will have just one platform and hence less space for displaying advertisements, reducing the scope of work for the firm.
Following a meeting held last week, RITES, the project management consultant for the pilot corridor, has submitted a new set of designs for the shelters to the firm. The government is waiting for a response.
“There are eight bus intersections along the first stretch, with 16 shelters with two platforms on each side, since the dedicated bus lane is along the central verge,” an official explained. “With the bus lane being shifted to the left now, there will be only one platform like ordinary bus stands. There will also be less space for displaying advertisements,” he added. There will be about ten bus stops along the second stretch.
Jindal Stainless Steel is already working on a contract of modernising 225 DTC bus shelters. The firm will also provide landscaping, lighting, garbage disposal and security at these shelters.
While the spokesperson of the company refused to comment on the matter since it is still under consideration, Transport Commissioner and Principal Secretary R K Verma said: “We have given the firm time to look at our proposal and designs and are yet to hear from them.”
While the civil work along the stretch is nearing completion, agencies involved are yet to install traffic signals and signages along the corridor. The second phase is expected to be functional only after June 2009, according to officials.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/change-in-brt-design-has-jindal-steel-complaining/434854/
JSW weighs Oz mining JV
16 Mar 2009, 0548 hrs IST, Pramugdha Mamgain, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel has initiated talks with an Australian mining firm to form a joint venture for exploration and mining of
coking coal in Queensland, Australia, said a person who is mediating in the proposed venture.
Coking coal is a key input in steel-making and the proposed JV will help JSW to secure raw material requirement.
New South Wales-based Hindustan Global Resources (HGR), is engaged in exploration, mining and consulting business and is negotiating on behalf of the Australian company.
HGR vice-president Amar Bhasin said the ASX-listed firm has offered JSW up to 50% stake in the JV that would absorb total investments of close to Rs 50-60 crore initially. He, however, declined to name the Australian firm.
Mr Bhasin added, "The talks are still at initial stages. We have offered three different coking coal mines to JSW on behalf of the Australian mining firm with total reserves of around 20 million tonnes. Continuous exchange of information is taking place between the two firms and JSW is also conducting due diligence."
The Australian firm has reserves of 20 million tonnes of recoverable coking coal, which could go up to 200 million tonnes if explored further. The JV, if successful, will give JSW Steel access to 20 million tonnes of coking coal reserves initially.
When contacted by ET, JSW Steel executive director (mining) Tuhin Mukherjee said, "We have been scouting for assets such as coking coal and iron ore globally for captive consumption. Our focus is on countries such as China, Canada , Indonesia, Australia and the US but nothing has been finalised so far."
JSW currently has a capacity to produce around 7.8 million tonnes of steel and is setting up a 10-million-tonne integrated steel plant at Shalboni in West Bengal. Although coking coal requirement of the upcoming plant is huge, JSW will partly meet its demand through the proposed Australian JV. In India, JSW has access to three coking coal blocks having estimated reserves of more than 300 million tonnes.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Economy/JSW-weighs-Oz-mining-JV/articleshow/4269756.cms
CPI to continue fight against POSCO and Vedanta - Mr Bardhan
PTI reported that CPI would continue its struggle against POSCO steel plant and Vedanta University though it supported the Naveen Patnaik government after the withdrawal of support by the BJP in Orissa.
Mr AB Bardhan general secretary of CPI said that "CPI will not change its policy of opposing POSCO's proposed steel plant and the university project of Vedanta."
Mr Bardhan said that CPI was not anti industry, adding that the party was opposed to the POSCO project on 4 counts, including permission to set up the plant on fertile land.
He said that on Vedanta's university proposal, a university did not require such a huge tract of land as demanded by Vedanta. Hopeful of seat sharing talks with BJD before March 23rd CPI had constituted a 5 member negotiation committee to hold talks with the regional parties.
http://steelguru.com/news/index/2009/03/16/ODYyOTY%3D/CPI_to_continue_fight_against_POSCO_and_Vedanta_-_Mr_Bardhan.html
Coal mining in India
by Ken Ward Jr.
Women make up a majority of the menial labour force in the mining industry. Photo from Centre for Science and Environment.
We’ve talked before on Coal Tattoo about coal-mining in China, where the safety and health conditions are simply unbelievable. (See previous posts here and here).
Well, there’s a story out this weekend that describes the state of affairs in India’s coal mining industry. It’s from the Times of India, and here’s a bit of it:
Underground fires rage, buildings cave in, greenery shrivels. And for the people living in the Raniganj coal belt, life hinges on a sliver of hope and the rich mineral they gouge out of the earth, legally or otherwise.
The midday sun beats down on the road leading to NH-2 and the peace and quiet of the dry, dusty landscape is broken by the rumblings of coal-laden lorries making their way out of one of India’s richest mineral zones. This is black diamond country, and has some of India’s best and biggest coal reserves.
It also forms the backdrop for some of India’s blackest tales of neglect and apathy. Elections have come and gone, but the lot of local villagers remains mired in despair their future as black as the precious coal they mine.
And here’s some more:
Some 30-odd km from Nimcha, across NH-2, is Churulia and the village of Deshermohan. Till a few years ago, the village enjoyed a unique distinction. The large Muslim population earned a living by sculpting stone figures of gods and goddesses. Today, the stone quarries have gone and the villagers have taken up a new profession. They are mining coal illegally for the local mafia.
Illegal pits dot the rocky terrain outside the village. At any time of the day, villagers can be seen disappearing into these pits and emerging sometime later with headloads of coal. The mineral is transported in bullock-carts to a nearby dump from where trucks haul the illegal load to factories. The leased out open-cast mine next door sends coal to power plants in the Punjab. Officials turn a blind eye to the illegal mines, so long as villagers don’t raise a hue and cry over flawed relocation plans or hollow promises of a brighter future.
In October, the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment outlined a wide variety of concerns about China’s growing coal-mining industry in its 356-page 6th State of India’s Environment Report. In the words of the group’s news release, the report “paints a horrific picture of the devastation that has been wrought by mining in the country.” Among the statistics:
– Between 1950 and 1991, mining displaced about 2.6 million people — not even 25 per cent of these displaced have been rehabilitated. About 52 per cent of these displaced were tribals.
– For every 1 per cent that mining contributes to India’s GDP, it displaces 3-4 times more people than all the development projects put together.
– Forest land diversion for mining has been going up. So has water use and air pollution in the mining hotspots. An estimated 1.64 lakh hectare of forest land has already been diverted for mining in the country. For instance, the forests in Bardhaman have been decimated by mining. Iron ore mining in India used up 77 million tonne of water in 2005-06, enough to meet the daily water needs of more than 3 million people.
– Mining of major minerals generated about 1.84 billion tonne of waste in 2006 — most of which has not been disposed off properly. Coal is the main culprit: every tonne of coal extracted generates 3-4 tonne of wastes.
Here’s some more from the press release and report:
The CSE report points out that mining cannot be sustainable or truly environment-friendly: one, because all ore bodies are finite and non-renewable and two, because even the best managed mines leave “environmental footprints”. But it also concedes that mining and minerals are necessary. Adds Chandra Bhushan: “As in the case of mining uranium in Meghalaya, the issue is not whether mining should be undertaken or not. Rather, it is about how it should be undertaken. It is about ensuring that mining is conducted in an environmentally and socially acceptable manner.”
Meghalaya, in fact, can set an example for the rest of the nation: it is probably one of the few states where communities are benefiting from mining. The Nongtrai village council receives a royalty on per tonnage basis for every tonne of limestone exported. The money collected is used by the council for community development and also shared between the villagers.
The CSE report goes on to recommend a range of policy initiatives that could help India meet this challenge. Some of its main recommendations include recognizing people’s right to say ‘no’ (mining should not take place without the consent of the people); independent, impartial preparation of EIA reports; disallowing mining in ecologically sensitive area; framing stronger mine closure regulations; and “doing more with less — a key to sustainable development”.
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/03/15/coal-mining-in-india/
India and Kazakh talk joint-venture
16 Mar 2009, 0030 hrs IST, Sanjay Dutta, TNN
NEW DELHI: India and Kazakhstan have initiated preliminary talks to examine the possibility of jointly building a petrochemicals-and-fertiliser
complex in Central Asia's biggest economy to exploit its gas reserves, even as they continue to explore similar opportunities in generating power using coal and uranium as fuels.
During the 7th Inter-Government Council meeting, Kazakhstan guaranteed gas supplies for such a complex it proposes to build at the Caspian harbour-city of Atyrau along the North-South energy and trade corridor spanning Russia to the Indian Ocean. Oil minister Murli Deora, heading the Indian delegation, said India could buy all the fertiliser produced at such a plant. The idea of an Indian role in Kazakhstan's petrochem sector was first mooted by Deora's predecessor Mani Shankar Aiyar.
Sources in Kazakh capital Astana told TOI that Kazakhstan was also talking to UAE for the project but the Indian fertiliser offtake commitment could make it sweeter for Astana, other factors remaining the same. For India, Kazakhstan's landlocked geography could be an issue over transportation. If and when a deal happens, it will be the second proposal for an Indian fertiliser project overseas after Oman.
During President Nursultan Nazarbayev's January visit to India, the two countries signed papers that will get ONGC Mittal Energy Ltd a joint venture between state-owned ONGC and steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal 25% stake in the Caspian acreage of Satpayev as well as allow India to import fuel for its nuclear plants. It was decided during the council talks that the formal agreement for the oil equity would be signed shortly before Kazakhstan implements the Sub-Soil Law. Under existing law, OMEL will not have to negotiate its equity separately after exploration is over and the field starts producing.
Moving forward on the proposal for Indian participation in Kazhak power sector, first reported by TOI in January, a team of executives from state-run generation utility NTPC visited a major coal-fired plant at Ekibastuz. Kazakhstan is looking at India setting up coal-fired plants and renovating old ones, while India is looking at importing coal in return. The two sides also agreed to sign a deal on civil nuclear cooperation that will open doors for exchange of training and may eventually see India setting up nuclear power plants there.
"Such deals take time. Both sides are looking at technical issues now. Kazakh gas is rich and can be first processed to extract petrochems and then used to make fertilisers. So both plants have to come together. The shape of India's participation, whether as equity partner or project financing and consultancy, will be discussed once technical issues are studied in detail," the source said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/India-Business/India-and-Kazakh-talk-joint-venture/articleshow/4268803.cms
Caution delays miners’ rescue
- 8 workers still trapped in Garo Hills pit OUR CORRESPONDENT
Shillong, March 15: Meghalaya police are yet to trace the eight workers trapped inside a coal mine that caved in at Rongsa Awe in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills district on Friday as the state government called for scientific methods of mining to avoid such incidents.
“Our rescue workers are working round the clock to trace the missing workers,” said inspector-general of police (law and order), B.L. Buam.
He said the delay in tracing the workers was because of a possibility that the mine might cave in further if heavy machinery was used to remove the debris.
“As the mines are located in small hillocks, we have to be careful while digging so that the mine will not collapse further,” Buam said.
The police said it was high time the miners adopted scientific methods lack of which has led to the deaths of several miners in parts of Garo Hills in the past.
Seven coal miners were killed on March 27, 2003, when the cave they were working in collapsed at Nangalbibra in South Garo Hills district.
Meghalaya Progressive Alliance spokesperson Conrad Sangma said the government was concerned about the matter.
“We are in the process of framing the mining policy to regulate unscientific mining and we will take up the matter for discussion soon,” he said.
A mining and geology department official said coal mining in Meghalaya, known as rat-hole mining, had changed the ecology and landscape of the state, besides affecting the health of the villagers residing in the vicinity of the mines.
The official said the state could not implement scientific methods of mining so far because of the land tenure system, as the ownership of land belonged to individuals and communities and not to the government.
The people use a traditional method of mining, according to their customary rights.
The Centre has named the mines here as local cottage mines or small-scale coal mines, which operate beyond the purview of the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act.
According to the existing rules, the mining and geology department undertakes mining of coal under a lease based on the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952.
However, in Meghalaya, the mining lease is not applicable, as the state government or the mining department does not have direct control over mineral resources.
The land tenure system in the state is such that the tribal population has ownership over the land and not the government.
Moreover, the mining department is handicapped as the Centre has accepted the mines of Meghalaya as small-scale coal mines.
Coal is mined mainly in parts of Lad Sutnga, Bapung, Lad Rymbai and Khliehriat areas of Jaintia Hills, Nangalbibra in South Garo Hills and Shallang, Langrin and Borsora in West Khasi Hills.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090316/jsp/northeast/story_10673812.jsp
Mining – International
A Chilean town withers in free market for water
Alexei Barrionuevo
Quillagua is among many small towns in Chile that are being swallowed up in the country’s intensifying water wars.
During the past four decades here in Quillagua, a town in the record books as the driest place on earth, residents have sometimes seen glimpses of raindrops above the foothills in the distance. They never reach the ground, evaporating like a mirage while still in the air.
What the town did have was a river, feeding an oasis in the Atacama desert. But mining companies have polluted and bought up so much of the water, residents say, that for months each year the river is little more than a trickle — and an unusable one at that.
Quillagua is among many small towns in Chile that are being swallowed up in the country’s intensifying water wars. Nowhere is the system for buying and selling water more permissive than here in Chile, experts say, where water rights are private property, not a public resource, and can be traded like commodities with little government oversight or safeguards for the environment.
Private ownership is so concentrated in some areas that a single electricity company from Spain, Endesa, has bought up 80 per cent of the water rights in a huge region in the south, causing an uproar.
In the north, agricultural producers are competing with mining companies to siphon off rivers and tap scarce water supplies, leaving towns like this one bone dry and withering.
“Everything, it seems, is against us,” said Bartolome Vicentelo, 79, who once grew crops and fished for shrimp in the Loa River that fed Quillagua.
The population is about a fifth what it was less than two decades ago; so many people have left that he is one of only 120 people still here.
Some economists have hailed Chile’s water rights trading system, which was established in 1981 during the military dictatorship, as a model of free-market efficiency that allocates water to its highest economic use.
But other academics and environmentalists argue that Chile’s system is unsustainable because it promotes speculation, endangers the environment and allows smaller interests to be muscled out by powerful forces, like Chile’s mining industry.
“The Chilean model has gone too far in the direction of unfettered regulation,” said Carl J. Bauer, an expert on Chile’s water markets at the University of Arizona. “It hasn’t thought through the public interest.”
Australia and the western United States have somewhat comparable systems, but they contain stronger environmental regulation and conflict resolution than Chile’s, Bauer said.
Chile is a stark example of the debate over water crises across the globe. Concerns about shortages plague Chile’s economic expansion through natural resources like copper, fruits and fish — all of which require loads of water in a country with limited supplies of it.
“The dilemma we are facing is whether we can permit ourselves to continue to develop with the same amount of water we have now,” said Rodrigo Weisner, Chile’s water director in the Public Works Ministry.
“There is no political consensus about how to deal with the challenge of producing the resources we have — including the biggest reserves of copper in the world — in a country that has the most arid desert in the world,” Weisner said.
Fernando Dougnac, an environmental lawyer in Santiago, said that balance was particularly difficult because the “market can regulate for more economic efficiency, but not for more social-economic efficiency.”
Lately, the country’s approach to water has been showing some cracks. In the Atacama desert city of Copiapo, unbridled water trading and a two-year drought mean that “there are many more water rights for the river than water that arrives from the river,” Dougnac said.
Quillagua is in Guinness World Records as the “driest place” for 37 years, yet it prospered off the Loa River, reaching a population of 800 by the 1940s. A long-haul train stopped here — today the station is abandoned — and the town’s school was near its 120-student capacity. (Today there are 16 students.)
That prosperity first began to ebb in 1987, when the military government reduced the water to the town by more than two-thirds, said Raul Molina, a geographer at the University of Chile. But the big blows came in 1997 and 2000, when two episodes of contamination ruined the river for crop irrigation or livestock during the critical summer months.
An initial study by a professor concluded that the 1997 contamination had probably come from a copper mine run by Codelco, the state mining giant. The Chilean government then hired German experts, who said the contamination had a natural origin.
Chile’s regional Agriculture and Livestock Service, part of the Ministry of Agriculture, refuted those findings in 2000, saying in a report that people, not nature, were responsible. Heavy metals and other substances associated with mineral processing were found that killed off the river’s shrimp and made the water undrinkable for livestock. (Drinking water for residents had been transported in for decades.)
Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner, rejects any responsibility. Pablo Orozco, a company spokesman, said that the river water had been bad for years, and that heavy rains around the time of the contamination episodes had briefly swelled it, sweeping sediments and other substances into the water.
But the debate is largely academic, because without suitable water to raise crops, many residents saw no reason to continue resisting outside offers to buy the water rights in their town. One mining company, Soquimich, or SQM, ended up buying about 75 percent of the rights in Quillagua. Most residents moved away; those who remain average around 50 years old.
:Quillagua cannot resist much longer,” said Alejandro Sanchez, 77, pointing a cane at a parched, grassless field where he once grew corn and alfalfa.
In 2007, the national water agency started investigating claims that Soquimich was extracting even more water from the Loa River than it was due. The inquiry is still pending, officials said, though the company says it has never taken more water than it owns rights to.
But early last year, the regional water authority started satellite monitoring along the Loa. After recording no water at all in the summer of 2007, Quillagua suddenly received small amounts last year, and again this January.
That has made water authorities suspicious that companies had been draining more water than permitted, according to Claudio Lam, a regional director for the Chilean water agency.
Even so, the water arriving in the summer is still not enough to produce crops, said Victor Palape, the chief of the Aymara Indians in Quillagua.
The town survives only because of daily water trucks that are partly financed by Codelco and Soquimich, the two companies that residents blame most for their troubles.
Quillagua’s residents remain determined. Palape, who owns the town’s main restaurant, still dreams of attracting tourists to the 108 meteor crater sites in and around Quillagua.
His sister Gloria is equally proud of Quillagua’s place in history.
“To be able to live in the driest place in the world, with everything that has happened, the people have to be resilient, to be stubborn,” she said. “We are not giving up.” — © 2009 The New York Times News Service
http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/16/stories/2009031656201100.htm
Policy on compensation for coalmine victims soon
Sunday, 03.15.2009, 01:42pm (GMT)
The government has taken steps to frame a policy on providing compensation to coalmine victims to ensure uninterrupted operation at all the mines and safeguard the country's future energy security, officials said Saturday.
The compensation policy will spell out packages for those affected from both open-pit and underground coalmining across the country, they said.
The government has initiated the move to adopt the compensation policy amid prolonged debates over compensation and rehabilitation of the country's coalmine victims that has been stunting development of the coal sector for years.
An alarming 11-day production halt, until last week, in the country's lone operational Barapukuria coalmine in northern Dinajpur risking power generation from the country's only 250 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant at the mine-mouth has also prompted the government to frame the policy, a senior energy ministry official said.
Locals living in the Barapukuria underground coalmine vicinity resisted all operations from February 25-March 7 last demanding compensation against land subsidence of topsoil inside the coalmine area.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth several billions dollars remained pending for the past several years due to indecisiveness from the successive governments.
"This time the energy ministry has already initiated works to formulate the policy to recompense each and every affected including the landowners, dwellers and those earning their livelihood using the lands of the coalmine areas," Energy Secretary Mohammad Mohsin told.
Even the squatters living in the coalmine areas would be compensated and relocated, he said. There would be sufficient compensation packages and relocations to the victims to ensure satisfaction of all the affected.
Monetary support along with relocations and rehabilitation of the affected from the mining sites would be the crux of compensation policy, Mr Mohsin said.
The policy would narrate the method of paying compensation, timing and the extent of the damages to their property, said a senior energy ministry official.
A committee headed by energy ministry senior official Ahmed Ullah has been constituted to expedite preparation of the draft of the compensation policy.
It has already visited the Barapukuria underground coalmine and its vicinity and had discussions with the locals to attain necessary inputs for drafting the policy.
Land subsidence at the Barapukuria coalmine vicinity was first reported in the initial year of initiating coal production from the mine in 2005.
Since then the incidence of land subsidence occurred on several occasions with the latest in January 2009, immediately after taking office by the incumbent government, was the worst.
Standing crops and infrastructures like houses and schools were affected by the land subsidence that ranged upto four feet in some places in the mining area, a senior official of the state-owned Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd (BCMCL) said.
Chinese contractors engaged with the maintenance and operation of the Barapukuria coalmine had also sought huge compensation from BCMCL, he added.
The aggrieved locals, however, later cooled down and allowed production in the coalmine after a closed-door meeting with the government high-ups in the BCMCL office.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also in charge of the energy ministry, had sent the Energy Adviser Toufique-e-Elahi Chowdhury, State Minister for Energy Shamsul Haque Tuku and State Minister for Forest and Environment Mostafizur Rahman to the mine site to quell the aggrieved.
http://www.energybangla.com/index.php?mod=article&cat=EBReport&article=1651
Sand mining opponents take battle back to court
4:00AM Monday Mar 16, 2009
By Wayne Thompson
Local fears the mining will cause beach erosion. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Sand-mining opponents have appealed to the High Court in their battle to halt dredging near the beach at Pakiri and Mangawhai on the east coast of Northland.
Friends of Pakiri Beach and the Auckland Regional Council are appealing against an Environment Court decision which in June 2006 extended permits for mining near the shore at Pakiri for 14 years.
This overturned an earlier ARC decision to deny an application from McCallum Bros and Sea Tow for permission to take 76,000cu m of sand a year in water 5m to 10m deep.
The ARC accepted evidence that the resource was not replenished naturally by sea currents, and that continued extraction from near the shore would lead to or worsen coastal erosion.
But the Environment Court took a different view.
It found the breakdown of shells in the 25km-long Mangawhai-Pakiri embayment contributed 90,000cu m of sediment a year to the quantity of sand to offset the effects of mining.
It also accepted the companies' evidence that despite 85 years of extraction, no significant erosion or change to the coastline could be blamed on dredging, and that no other efficient sources of quality sand were available to Auckland construction projects.
The Environment Court also ordered monitoring which McCallum Bros says is the most extensive for any beach in New Zealand.
Lawyers for the Friends of Pakiri told the High Court at Auckland last week that errors of law took away the foundation for the decision.
Nicholas Davidson QC said much of the case turned on scientific evidence.
Some errors were related to findings based on "unfounded speculation masquerading as expert hypothesis" or where no evidence existed to support the finding. Some findings flew in the face of available evidence.
For the ARC, lawyer Andrew Green said the case was about the sustainability of the mining.
He asked for the matter to be sent back to the Environment Court for reconsideration on the basis of a revised calculation which reconciled experts' conflicting evidence.
This covered the contribution of shell breakdown materials to the "box", or sand resource area, assuming that the outer limit of the box was a depth of 25m.
Justice Raynor Asher reserved his decision.
The appeal parties could not introduce new evidence at the hearing.
The Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society has complained to the ARC that erosion over 18 months along the beach threatened the breeding area of the endangered fairy tern and the stability of the sandspit.
It said sand lost at Pakiri in a year was equivalent to 50 times the amount used to restore Kohimarama Beach in Auckland City.
The ARC said erosion along the beach was likely from extreme storms in July 2007 and last July, and was consistent with low beach levels recorded in ARC coastal monitoring of other east coast beaches.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10561841
Opponents of uranium mine find allies at the Beach
Christina Nuckols
Virginian-Pilot op-ed columnist
Read Articles
The Virginian-Pilot
© March 15, 2009
Deborah and Phillip Lovelace felt like they were going up against an army as they organized opposition to a proposed uranium mine five miles from their cattle farm near Gretna, a Southside town of 1,300.
Then the Virginia Beach City Council passed a resolution opposing the mine without guarantees that the operation wouldn't contaminate Lake Gaston, its primary drinking water supply.
Suddenly, the Lovelaces had their own army: a city of 425,000 people. "I could have almost turned cartwheels," Phillip said.
"People now realize, 'Hey, maybe it's not just little Gretna, Va.,' " Deborah added. "It's going to affect a lot more people."
The Lovelaces are among 10 Gretna residents traveling to Hampton Roads Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. meeting at Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Princess Anne Road. Officials from the Beach and Norfolk have been invited, and the event is open to the public.
The Lovelaces say they hope to get moral support and meet people with environmental expertise to aid their cause.
While the event is likely to attract mostly passionate opponents of mining, it's being organized by the Virginia Interfaith Center and Tidewater Sowers of Justice, two faith-based groups that aren't exactly in the rabble-rousing business.
The professorial Del. Joe Bouchard will lead the discussion, and he admits his audience may not like everything he says. The Democrat supports a controversial state study on the impact of uranium mining in Virginia as long as it's done by the respected National Academy of Sciences and is not influenced by mining companies.
"If you do it right, it's going to shed light on what the dangers really are," he said.
While a county zoning board might be swayed by crowds of angry people, state regulatory boards will base their decisions on scientific analysis, Bouchard said.
A former Montanan, Bouchard is familiar with the health and environmental destruction uranium mining can cause. New technologies have been developed to minimize mining impacts in arid climates, but he's unsure whether they will work in Virginia with its heavy rains and interconnected groundwater systems.
Bouchard hopes the meeting will help constituents and city leaders start thinking strategically about energy issues. Virginia Beach finds itself on the front lines of the debates. Many of the options could benefit the city, but they also carry risks.
A proposed coal-fired power plant in Surry County would release greenhouses gases and add pollutants to the Chesapeake Bay. Offshore drilling and wind farms raise questions about impacts on the environment and military operations. Nuclear energy is the quickest way to reduce greenhouses gases, but it requires uranium for fuel.
"If Virginia Beach degenerates into a situation where they just say no to everything, people will stop listening to them," Bouchard said. "There's a rational way to approach this and, that's what I'll be advocating."
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/03/opponents-uranium-mine-find-allies-beach
Over hundred Uranium prospecting licences issued
by Bashi Letsididi
15.03.2009 6:33:29 P
Some 138 prospecting licences have been issued for the exploration of uranium and, according to minerals minister, Ponatshego Kedikilwe, such activity is taking place “across the length and breadth of Botswana”.
The areas covered by the licenses are in the districts of southern, north east, south east, Ngamiland, Kweneng, Kgalagadi, Gantsi and central.
This information came in response to a question posed by Mahalapye East MP, Botlogile Tshireletso.
Uranium occurs naturally in low concentrations in soil, rock and water and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals. Projections are that current economic uranium resources will last for over 100 years at current consumption rates. About 5.5 million tonnes of uranium ore reserves are considered economically viable. Uranium is mined in several ways: open pit, underground, in-situ leaching and boreholing.
The main use of uranium in civilian sector is to fuel commercial nuclear power plants. In the military, its main application is in high-density penetrators that can enable destruction of heavy-armoured targets. Its production is exported under strict International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards against use in nuclear weapons.
About 25 percent of uranium is mined in Canada. The other important uranium-mining countries are Australia , Kazakhstan , Niger , Russia and Namibia .
From all indications, Botswana could soon join that club.
Mining Weekly suggests that Botswana is destined to become “a second Namibia ” where uranium mining is vibrant. Other analyses are that Botswana will out-compete Namibia .
Whatever the case may be, countries that surround Botswana hold about 15 percent of the world’s current uranium resources.
At a resource conference held in Gaborone last year, Dr. Andrew Tunks, the CEO of an Australian company that is exploring for uranium in Letlhakane said that the area where they are exploring would “certainly be one of the largest places of contained uranium anywhere.”
Exploration for uranium comes with its risks. Tshireletso wanted to know whether there are any precautionary measures in place to ensure the safety of those conducting the exploration and the communities where the exploration is being conducted.
“Until they are mined and exposed, uranium minerals do not pose any hazard to prospectors or communities. However, as a precaution, employees of companies exploring for radioactive minerals are provided with protective clothing and trained on the handling of any material which may be radioactive. In addition, all radioactive material or equipment using radioactive substances are clearly labeled. Furthermore, signs warning of radiation hazard are put up at appropriate localities where radioactive materials may exist or be stored to warn people about the dangers of such material,” Kedikilwe said.
http://sundaystandard.info/news/news_item.php?NewsID=4590&GroupID=3
Other Voices: Many myths surround local gold mine project
By David Watkinson
I am responding to Mike Pasner’s recent letter to The Union. Mr. Pasner is a member of Claim-GV and a vocal opponent of the Idaho-Maryland Project.
I appreciate Claim-GV’s right to oppose the Idaho-Maryland project. However, the public needs to be aware that much of the information being put out by this group is incorrect, misleading, and designed to deceive and create fear in the public. In response to some of the inaccuracies in Mr. Pasner’s letter:
The Idaho-Maryland Mine is not in the city limits of Grass Valley. Part of the project area is planned for annexation into the city as part of its 2020 general plan and part would remain in the county. Annexing would enable the city to collect sales tax from the project.
Mr. Pasner states that there are no hard rock metal mines operating inside city limits in California. No major operating hard rock metal mines existed in California as recently as 2007 (source: USGS). At that time, two gold mines were still recovering gold from heap leach operations, but not mining.
In 2008, both the Briggs Mine and Mesquite Mine reopened in California. It is hard to have a metal mine within city limits when there are no mines left in the state.
Many operating mines, both open-pit and underground, are within or adjacent to cities.
Examples include Hutchinson Salt Mine, Bingham Canyon Mine (copper), Windsor Salt Mine, Red Lake Mine (gold), and Thompson Mine (nickel), just to name a few. Hundreds of quarries are located in cities — Perkins Quarry in Sacramento would be a good example.
The ceramics plant would not be visible from most of Grass Valley. It definitely would not be visible from the Nevada County Contractor’s Office, City Hall or the Board of Realtor’s office as Pasner claims.
It would be partially visible from the hospital, which is on a hill directly above the project. The mine buildings would be hidden behind a buffer of trees along Idaho-Maryland Road. Visual simulations of the buildings can be found at www.idaho-maryland.com under “Project Description.”
The photo renderings (not the artistic renderings) show what the mine site would look like once it is built. Buildings have been designed to look like a business park and at closure the buildings and site would be transformed into a business park.
There would not be 300 private wells affected by the dewatering of the mine. The draft environmental impact report indicates an area where potentially 30 wells could be impacted.
Claim-GV’s economic analysis of the mining project that Mr. Pasner indicates is forthcoming should be interesting. I expect it will be similar to their jobs analysis, which concludes: “According to Idaho-Maryland Mine’s projections of 400 permanent jobs, only about 103 jobs lasting more than 12 years could go to current Grass Valley area residents, with a real possibility that as few as 26 jobs would go to local residents. And if there is no ceramics plant, these numbers plummet to 51 and 13 respectively.” I suggest you try to follow their math.
The reality is that the mine would provide over 400 high-paying jobs for 20 years. Half of these jobs will go to local residents. (See chart above.)
Many of the anti-mining links on the Claim-GV Web site also contain misinformation.
For example, their link to “Gold is the Duddest of Dud Investments” quotes Merrill Lynch as saying gold is a poor investment and portrays the article as being written Feb. 2, 2009. The original article was actually written in 2001 titled, “Fool’s Gold, 10 Problems with Gold Mining” by Project Underground of Berkeley (when the price of gold was $264 per ounce).
In contrast, on Feb. 2, 2009, Gary Dugan, Chief Investment Officer for Merrill Lynch was actually quoted as predicting gold going to $1,500 per ounce within the next 12-15 months.
Not only do groups like Claim-GV put out misinformation, but they propagate misinformation put out by other anti-mining groups, often without knowing it.
If Claim-GV is really interested in the community, I challenge them to work with the city and mine corporation in a proactive and positive way to build a better project.
The mine corporation looks forward to addressing all concerns raised through the public comment period for the draft EIR. We look forward to building a project that is environmentally and socially responsible and will benefit the community.
David Watkinson is president and COO of Emgold Mining Corp., president of Idaho-Maryland Mining Corp., and vice president of Golden Bear Ceramics Co.
http://www.theunion.com/article/20090314/OPINION/903139937/1024/NONE&title=Other%20Voices%20%20Many%20myths%20surround%20local%20gold%20mine%20project
Last coal mine in Vermilion County closes
Associated Press
7:10 AM CDT, March 15, 2009
VERMILION GROVE, Ill. - The long history of coal mining in Vermilion County appears to have come to an end.
Peabody Energy told 160 miners on Thursday night that the Vermilion Grove Coal Mine will be closing.
Peabody Energy spokeswoman Beth Sutton says the mine was the last active one in Vermilion County.
She says mining operations ended late last week, but workers will be employed in various shutdown activities for the next two weeks.
Sutton says the Vermilion Grove mine was closed because it had reached the end of its reserves, and geologic conditions made it impossible to continue without risking worker safety. She says the 160 miners will be offered work at some of Peabody's 13 other Midwestern mines.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-coalminecloses,0,4555482.story
Govt extends review of Chinalco-Rio deal
Posted 4 hours 54 minutes ago
Updated 2 hours 44 minutes ago
The Federal Government has announced it needs more time to scrutinise the proposal by China's biggest aluminium producer, Chinalco, to increase its stake in Rio Tinto.
The Foreign Investment Review Board will have an extra 90 days to study the controversial deal.
Mining analysts say it is the most important decision on foreign investment since the then-treasurer, Peter Costello, prevented oil giant Shell from taking over oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum eight years ago.
The Federal Government has to decide whether allowing a major customer to double its stake in Rio Tinto is in the national interest.
The managing director of Perennial Value Management, John Murray, oversees $300 million worth of Rio shares.
Mr Murray says the Government has a very significant decision to make so he understands the extension.
"It was always going to be a bit tight anyway, so in that sense no great surprises there," he said.
"What we're looking at here is a major consumer of Australian raw materials becoming a part owner of those raw materials and also becoming potentially a very significant part owner in Rio, which produces these raw materials. It's a bellwether in some ways."
Mr Murray says his company has not decided whether or not it would support the deal.
Some Rio Tinto shareholders, like Mr Murray, have been up in arms over the deal, which would see a cash injection from Chinalco of about $30 billion.
But mining analyst Stephen Bartrop says that pales into insignificance when compared with what could have been.
Last year Rio Tinto walked from a takeover offer from BHP Billiton which valued Rio at around $165 billion dollars.
"FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board) will be considering other alternatives in terms of this Chinalco deal," Mr Bartrop said.
"If you stand back and look at, for example, the scope for asset sales and remember that BHP offer, which was withdrawn last November. But that would be worth around $105 at the moment per Rio Tinto share, which is more than double the current Rio Tinto share price. So there's a lot of things that FIRB has to consider.
"I think the risk is that [the Government] applies some quite heavy restrictions on the deal and overall that could be quite a negative for Rio. Bear in mind Rio is removing any scope, perhaps, for a takeover premium that could emerge from BHP or other companies in the future.
"The Government wants to appease the Chinese but at the same time it doesn't want to give away undue influence over Australian assets."
Peter Chilton, a fund manager from Constellation Capital Manager, also owns Rio Tinto shares and he says it is the best offer on the table at the moment, given the global financial crisis and the difficulty of getting finance.
"The Australian Government would clearly recognise this is an important deal and has to be considered very fully," he said.
"But the extension by 90 days is just normal course of business. I don't think it necessarily means the Government thinks this is more serious than any other particular deal that might be contemplated.
"On the basis of the availability of financing and on the basis of the fairly reasonable prices they've got for the assets they're selling, on the face of it and in the absence of any other alternative that we're aware of, it seems quite a good deal."
Rio Tinto shareholders will get to vote on the plan once all the legal hurdles are passed.
At a time when credit is hard to get, Australian businesses are still borrowing.
Figures from the Bureau of Statistics show the number of companies borrowing money rose 6.5 per cent in January, much of that refinancing of existing loans.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/16/2517108.htm?section=justin
Dragon Energy eyes new mining projects
Reuters reported that China-linked Dragon Energy Ltd is eyeing investments in new mining projects and would be comfortable with deals of up to AUD 100 million.
Perth-based Dragon, backed by China's Shandong Group, said it sees itself as a link between Chinese capital and cash-strapped project owners, and is hunting for investment opportunities in a range of commodities including coal, iron ore, copper and uranium within and outside Australia.
Mr Xu Gang, managing director of Dragon Energy, who was speaking at the Reuters Global Mining and Steel Summit said "Shandong Group, our cornerstone investor, sees Australia as an important resource base and we are looking for investment opportunities in new projects. He said that "We may be a small company, but through our cornerstone investor, we'll be comfortable with deals of up to AUD 100 million."
Mr Anthony Ho executive director and company secretary of Dragon said "This is the perfect buyers' market. The stars are now aligned for buyers. He said that we will choose the club when we get to the ball. Until we find a life project, we can't decide on the parameters of our investments."
Mr Xu said Dragon has looked at about 10 projects in the past two months and is in early discussions on a coal miner owner in the United States adding that it is mainly only interested in projects that are either in the advanced exploration phase or are already in development. He said that old drilling data from the 1960s showed that the two primary phosphate projects, Babbling Brooke Hill and Riversleigh, have a combined tonnage of about 50 million tonnes.
Dragon said its nearby Big Toby project was chasing larger volumes of phosphate.
http://steelguru.com/news/index/2009/03/16/ODY0MDE%3D/Dragon_Energy_eyes_new_mining_projects.html
Other News – India
Tribe to boycott hearing
- Idu Mishmis want Dibang hydel power project scrapped OUR CORRESPONDENT
Itanagar, March 15: The All Idu Mishmi Cultural and Literary Society and the All Idu Mishmi Students Union have threatened to boycott the proposed public hearing for the 3,000MW Dibang Multipurpose Hydroelectric Project in Lower Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh.
The general secretary of the students’ union, Tone Mickrow, today said the union along with the Society, spearheading the anti-dam movement in the district in protest against the decision of the Centre and the state governments to go for the project undermining the interests of about 10,000 Idu Mishmi population, would boycott the proposed public hearing slated for March 27.
Mickrow alleged that the state government had accepted money from the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), the executing agency, and was championing its cause without consulting the local population.
“We want to see an end to the never-ending circus called public hearing for the project. We have the people’s support and there will be a mass boycott of the public hearing as before. We submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit on January 31 last year, demanding immediate scrapping of the project which once comes up will push the 10,000 population of Idu Mishmi tribesmen living in the district to the brink. Singh laid the foundation stone of the mega project on that day in Itanagar, more than hundreds of kilometres away from the actual site fearing public outcry. Our associations will not budge an inch from our stand come what may,” Mickrow said.
Echoing him, the general secretary of the Society, Mite Linggi, demanded that Lower Dibang Valley be declared as “ecologically-sensitive zone” according to the provisions under Section 3 of Environment Protection Act, 1986, claiming that the district had the highest forest cover in Arunachal Pradesh besides two wildlife sanctuaries and was part of the Dihang-Dibang Biosphere Reserve.
He said Dibang Valley was also considered part of one of the 25 global biodiversity hotspots of the world nurturing rare and endangered flora and fauna and dense forests.
At least 17 mega hydro power projects have been proposed in Dibang Valley district to augment the hydro power potential of the country.
“How can an influx of 6,000 outsiders as labourers and workers for a single project in a valley of fast diminishing 10,000 indigenous people be seen as cultural integration and assimilation? This is a cruel joke,” Linggi said.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090316/jsp/northeast/story_10675758.jsp
Child rights - an invisible, yet important vote bank
15 Mar 2009, 2105 hrs IST, Niranjana Ramesh, ET Bureau
CHENNAI: In a world of 'adult issues', like physical security and economic well being, the issues of a young mind growing up in an increasingly
demanding and challenging world, have often been left out in political processes. With the importance of education growing in the economy as well as in family aspirations and expenditure, child rights issues could be a differentiator in political manifestos.
"Child welfare has traditionally been seen as a responsibility of the family, rather than the state. That is why the state, for a brief period of time, even penalised parents whose children were not in school," said Child, Rights and You (CRY) spokesperson P Krishnamoorthy. The first breakthrough came in the form of the right to education bill, which is yet to become an act, incidentally.
Indian children contribute to 9% of the world's child population, and form 40% of our population. While 56% of our children enroll in primary schools, only 48% of them complete 8th standard, and 10% complete higher education. However, there has been an increase in family expenditure on education, particularly among the lower classes, from 6% of household income to 20%.
"Now, there is parental expectation for the state to aid in the education of their children, particularly in the south where the success rates of welfare programmes like the noon meal scheme have been higher," said UNICEF education specialist Aruna Rathnam.
"However, to capitalise on this expectation, political parties need to have the will and the nuance to not only include the right kind of promises in the manifesto, but also to educate their vote banks on the importance of public education," Ms Aruna said. "It is even a political responsibility to do so as skill training and knowledge acquisition become even more important in times of slump in economy."
CRY has come up with its election charter of demands, for all political parties, putting child welfare in the larger socio-economic context, rather than as a standalone. "We believe that the rapid appropriation of resources that we are engaged in now, is an injustice to the future generations, and directly affects the welfare of our children," Mr Krishnamoorthy. "Hence the need to include a demand to introspect our development paradigm in our charter."
While the issue of land and livelihoods has been well debated in discussions on rehabiliation of commuties in living in a to-be-industrialised space, the issue of displacement of their children has never been considered. "The cultural and social affectations on children uprooted from their 'home' are at times drastic," Mr Krishnamoorthy said. "Children living in coastal areas are bewildered and unhappy about a shift to the hills; tribal children are attached to the forests that they live in."
Based on the above, CRY seeks for rehabilitation and resettlement is sought to be child sensitive and child centric. "This includes providing an education and child-centric living infrastructure in the rehabilitated space, as well as empowering the community to take best care of its young population," Mr Krishnamoorthy said. "The same demands hold for children displaced by migration or demise of their parents too. Adopting such children in welfare homes should come only as a last resort."
In the education
front, the organisation has always opposed the large role played by the private sector and continues to do so. As a more
practicable demand, it seeks a more stringent regulatory framework for private primary and school education instutitions.
"Each of the school education boards regulate the tution fees levied by the schools registered with them. But, there is no regulation on the rest of the fees, for uniform, books, building, transport etc.," Ms.Aruna said. CRY, despite placing the onus on public education, demands a over-arching central regulatory body as with any other sector.
"This brings us to our other demand - that of equity in education through a common school system," Mr Krishnamoorthy said. "The TN government has responded with the proposal for a universal board of education."
It seeks the inclusion of pre-primary and higher education in the right to education bill, which provides only for children of ages 6 to 14. "For those aged above 14, but below 18, there is no guarantee of education and protection, and simulatenously no entitlement or empowerment to participate fully in political and economic processes," Mr Krishnamoorthy said. "As the right to life is defined as living with dignity and protection, which can only be enabled through education and employment, it is important to guarantee education till the age of 18."
"There have been fragmented populist attempts at fulfilling the guarantee, like the sarva siksha abhyan and activity based learning. But, on the whole, we require larger public participation in issues of child welfare, and not exclusivity through privatisation," Mr Krishnamoorthy said. "To achieve that, we need an increase in government expenditure on education to 10% of GDP." Whereas, it has actually reduced from 3.81% to 3.54% even as the last election target was 6%.
"It has been estimated that the state needs Rs.90,000 crores, 0.7% of GDP, totally to implement the right to education as it guarantees, and it collected Rs.9000 crore as education cess alone last year. It is not an unachievable target."
The organisation applies the same arguments for regulation of private institutions to healthcare too. Figures on infant, child and infant mortality rates in India, are by now, popular. At 59, 74 and 39 deaths per 1000 respectively, they are only marginally better than their status in 1990 at 79, 109 and 49 deaths per 1000 respectively. 42.5% of Indian children are malnutritioned, compared to 7% in China, and more along the lines of sub-saharan Africa.
"There is a tendency to look at these figures as a reflection on healthcare systems, while it is children who are dying here. So, it is really a reflection on our child welfare systems," Mr Krishnamoorthy said. "It is necessary to specially provide healthcare for our younger generation if not for ourselves. It is yet again a state responsibility, which has not been acknowledged so far."
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/PoliticsNation/Child-rights---an-important-vote-bank/articleshow/4268416.cms
Twice-a-day meal scheme for rescued child labourers
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Express News Service Posted: Mar 16, 2009 at 0242 hrs IST
Vadodara: After noticing the dwindling health status of rescued child labourers at the schools run by the National Child Labour Project Society (NCLPS), the Labour Department has decided to extend the provisions of twice-a-day meal to these children from the next academic session.
The programme will be extended to nine such schools run in the slum pockets of the city under NCLPS. Here, the rescued child labourers, between the age group of 5 and 14, are given preliminary and non-formal education.
Apart from the high prevalence of skin allergies and infections, the routine monthly health check-ups by the NCLPS has also shown several cases of anaemia, malnutrition and various other irregularities related to malnutrition.
“Almost all the children are underweight and have stunted growth. In many cases, the normal growth of these children is stalled and a nine-year-old child can be easily passed off as a five-year-old. We feel that a proper course of food given twice a day can improve the situation,” said NCLPS Project Director Janki Tank.
The NCLPS recently made a liaison with the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) for including the Mid Day Meal (MDM) Scheme for municipal schools in the city. The provision will be made available for over 450 rescued child labourers at nine NCLPS-run schools in various slum pockets of the city.
“We are already providing the children with afternoon meal under the NCLPS. After the liaison, the MDM will provide the afternoon meal, while the NCLPS will pack the supper every evening, which the children can take back home,” said Tank.
She added: “With this, we are trying to reach not just the children with us at the NCLPS schools, but also to their siblings back home. Enough quantity will be given so that the food can be shared. We intend to see the results within five months of the implementation of the twice-a-day meal programme.”
NCLPS also intends to extend the programme to other schools in various neighbouring talukas of Kwant, Dabhoi, Savli and Waghodia.
“Similar schools for child labourers are run in the talukas as well.
But since MDM is restricted only to the city premises, some other provisions have to be made for children in the talukas before the next academic year,” said G H Jani, Assistant Commissioner of Labour.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/twiceaday-meal-scheme-for-rescued-child-lab.../434980/
Location of SEZs in India not strategic: World Bank
Press Trust Of India / New Delhi March 16, 2009, 0:47 IST
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in India are bereft of geographical advantages as they are not well located as in China, the World Bank has said in its study.
“A cursory glance at India’s SEZs suggests that they were not nearly as well located,” the bank said while comparing with Chinese SEZs in its ‘World Development Report’ 2009. It added “poor location is the main obstacle to success.” In 2007, SEZs were approved in the coastal states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, as well as in the interior states of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, the report highlighted. “Even in the coastal states, many SEZs are not along the coast,” it noted.
“It seems to matter more where the zones are located, not who owns and operates them,” the report said. Taking a dig at India’s policy to encourage industry in the backward areas, the bank said, “Even after more than 30 years of draconian regulation, few districts in the backward areas became major industrial centres.”
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/locationsezs-in-india-not-strategic-world-bank/351919/
Climate change posers
16 Mar 2009, 0108 hrs IST,
One of the stranger spectacles of the climate change debate was the sight, earlier this month, of NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen marching
hand-in-hand with Hollywood actress Darryl Hannah outside the Capitol Coal Power Plant in Washington, DC.
Hansen promised to brave arrest at what was billed as the world’s largest direct-action climate change protest. Instead, the worst snowstorm in three years reduced the size of the crowd, prevented special guests from arriving, and hindered efforts to use a solar panel to light up a protest billboard. The police reportedly told the crowd that they didn’t want to arrest anybody who didn’t want to be arrested, and nobody was.
That didn’t stop the protesters from proclaiming the event a success. But if stopping global warming
were this easy, I — and everybody I know — would be painting placards for the next round of direct action.
Hansen condemns coal-fired power plants as “death factories,” and his belief that coal is evil is widely shared. It is also obviously wrong. If we were to stop using coal tomorrow, we would discover that it remains a vital source of life.
Coal accounts for almost half of the planet’s electricity supply, including half the power consumed in the United States. Coal keeps hospitals and core infrastructure running, provides warmth and light in winter, and makes life-saving air conditioning available in summer. In China and India, where coal accounts for about 80% of power generation, it has helped to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
It is little wonder, then, that US energy secretary Steven Chu, who two years ago described the expansion of coal-fired power plants as his “worst nightmare,” now calls coal a “great natural resource.”
The vital question is what would replace coal if we were to stop using it. Judging from their chant — “No coal, no gas, no nukes, no kidding” and “Biofuels — hell no!” — the protesters in Washington would rule out many plausible alternatives.
Solar and wind power appear to be acceptable, but both are much less reliable than coal, and much more expensive. Only about 0.5% of the world’s energy comes from these renewable sources. Even with optimistic assumptions, the International Energy Agency estimates that their share will rise to just 2.8% by 2030. One reason is that we don’t know how to store the energy from these sources: when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, what powers your computer or the hospital’s operating room?
Moreover, renewables are still costly. Recently, former US vice president Al Gore and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon claimed that, “in the US, there are now more jobs in the wind industry than in the entire coal industry.” Never mind that the numbers were massaged, because they still hold a valuable lesson. The US gets 50% of its electricity from coal but less than 0.5% from wind. If it takes about the same manpower to produce both, wind power is phenomenally more expensive.
The equivalent of more than 60 million barrels of oil is consumed in coal every day, and there is no affordable “green” alternative. There is an ample and cheap supply of coal for several centuries. We need to accept that much of the world’s cheap coal will be burned — but we should focus on capturing the CO2. In agreements announced by the Obama administration, the US is working with China and Canada on projects to develop this technology.
The end of fossil fuel’s stronghold will come when we have cheap alternatives, especially in developing countries. That day will arrive sooner if governments spend more money on low-carbon energy research, which is woefully inadequate. Every nation should ideally commit to spending 0.05% of GDP exploring non-carbon-emitting energy technologies. This would cost $25 billion per year — a 10-fold increase in global financing — and create momentum to recapture the vision of delivering a low-carbon, high-income world.
Coal contributes strongly to global warming, but no amount of political theatre can alter the inescapable fact that it also provides benefits that we cannot yet replicate with renewable energy. Braving arrest with Hollywood stars is a diversion. Declaring true victory over global warming will take a lot more pragmatism, and a lot more work.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Comments--Analysis/Climate-change-posers/articleshow/4269201.cms
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