The Hindu : Mining rights: `a fit case for judicial probe'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 28, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Mining rights: `a fit case for judicial probe'

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM JUNE 27. The Congress MP, V. M. Sudheeran, today said the Antony Government's decision to award mineral sand mining rights in coastal Alappuzha district to a private company "is a fit case for a judicial inquiry.''

Addressing a meet-the-press programme here, he said the way the interested parties had pushed their case past the normal democratic procedures to win a favourable decision from the Government gave sufficient indication to the shady nature of the whole deal.

He circulated to the media the copies of more than a dozen letters he had written to the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, and the Industries Minister, P.K. Kunhalikutty, on the subject during the last one year.

The letters virtually offer a chronological description of events relating to the project. In the first, dated May 18, 2002, Mr. Sudheeran conveys the apprehensions of the people of the region about the ecological and social impact of the project in an area prone to heavy sea erosion. The subsequent ones describe how the Government, ignoring the fears of the people, proceeds ruthlessly with the task of processing the proposal.

The final letter, dated May 3, 2003, addressed to Mr. Antony, expresses shock over the Cabinet decision to award the mining rights to a private company called Kerala Rare Earth and Minerals Limited.

``The Industries Minister has nothing to lose in Alappuzha. He has reason to rejoice because he has got the Cabinet to approve his designs. However, the people of the region, who are already subject to the miseries associated with sea erosion and other natural calamities, will have to pay a heavy price for this,' he says in his final letter.

``People like me are mortified and angry that anything is possible in this Government if there is enough money to spend," he writes.

He describes how the powers-that-be had frustrated all his efforts to enlighten the Government about the concerns of the people of the region and even got up a report, purportedly prepared by experts, to justify the mining project. "This study was done by the agents of the private company which was given the mining rights,'' he says in his letter.

He writes that long before the Cabinet had taken the decision to award mining rights to the private sector, name of the company which ultimately got the licence started figuring in the letters the Industries Secretary, John Mathai, had sent to the Union Ministry for Mining for its sanction to exploit strategic minerals. The company started buying land in the area and constructed a factory building there long before any decision was taken by the Government.

``Mr. John Mathai and a group of top officials in the Industries Department are eager to do anything for this company. How did such a situation arise in your Government?'' Mr. Sudheeran asks Mr. Antony.

He reminds Mr. Antony of the plight of the Transport Minister, R. Balakrishna Pillai, who had to go through lot of agony in the Graphite case following a charge that he had helped a private company gain more than Rs. 19 lakhs at the State's expense.

``If he had to suffer so much for that, what will be the fate of the people who are going all out to help this private company win crores of rupees using the State's resources? How many courts they will have to frequent?'' he asks in his letter.

Mr. Sudheeran said he was still hopeful that the Government would drop its decision. "If not, I will resign as Member of Parliament because it means I have failed in my duty to the people whom I represent. After all, the decision comes from a Government headed by my own party,'' he said.

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