Well said Mr. Manoj Padhi Sahab, whether other tribal guys appreciate your views or not, at least I appreciate your comments. It seems you are very much concerned about the poor tribes. You are right sir, most of the tribes don’t know about independent India. Sir most of them doesn’t even know why 26th January and 15th August is celebrated for. They can’t understand the slogan “JAI BHARAT”, “BHARAT MATA KI JAI” etc. How will they know sir, as you know most of the tribes live in remote areas, jungles, forests, hill areas; most of them are illiterate. And, as far I think this is the FAILURE of the SYSTEM. System means the incompetent, hopeless, corrupt, lazy, selfish system. Whether it is government system, or those who are taking salary in the name of development / education of these tribes / underdeveloped people. How many of us can willingly / honestly work for those tribes. Now-a-days many NGO are also working in those tribal areas, but I know the attitude of employees working for those NGOs. “KHANE KO DUSRA JAGAH NAHIN MILA, TO NGO KI SHARAN MEI AA GAYE. TIME PASS JOB HO JATA HAI.” If you can elaborate what people needs to realize / understand for “why non-tribals are better than tribals”. May be you have noticed / realized some facts. Sir, you have nicely noticed that “when development comes to their door steps as some MNC project, our political 'tribal leaders' oppose development because they want status quo.” Here, you are considering only one side of industrialization. It seems that you might be an agent of some MNC. Sir, as far I know, MNC are not concerned about development. They are only concerned about their business, their profit. Sir, if the company cannot make profit, then who will invest in the company, who will buy its shares, how will the price of its share increase, how will the market capitalization of the company increase? You have said yourself that “industrialists can invest in those remote areas only if there is some profit.” Correct sir! Sir, nobody is opposing about industrialization. The tribes and the tribal leaders and the environmentalist are concerned about the wider facts, which atleast the people of your calibre can never understand. As far I know, they raise questions regarding the COMPENSATION and REHABILITATION of the LAND LOOSERS and LOCALS, which remain unaddressed in most cases. When the time comes to talk in this regard, no CEO or the Managing director or chairman of the organization shows interest. Even if you consider the Indian companies in Jharkhand, can you please name a single company which has given sufficient or proper compensation or rehabilitation to the land loosers and locals? You tell me at least one name sir. And, as far profit of those companies are concerned, I am sure that those companies have made millions of billions in that area. I have also heard that the Jharkhand government has signed many MOUs with many Indian as well as multinational companies for setting up factories / industries in Jharkhand. Recently TATA had to shift the NANO factory from Singur to somewhere in Gujarat. First of all I could not understand why the industrialists want to set industries / SEZs in cultivatable lands? Secondly, people were telling, “US FACTORY MEI 10,000 LOGON KO ROZGAR MILEGA.” This statistics was impossible to understand for a layman like me. I tried to apply my mathematical skills and I was completely failed to understand the statistics. May be the TATAs were trying to mislead the government, the local people. I simply cannot understand what will be those 10,000 people do in a car plant? Whereas it is known that “PRODUCTIVITY” is one of the prime concerns of these private firms. Even if I consider the supporting industries (ancillary industries), the number cannot reach 10000. Let us assume an MNC (for example MITTAL itself) is set up at “X” place in a tribal area in Jharkhand. This is sure that if that MNC invests a total “N” thousand crore in that Plant, then it will earn atleast “50N” thousand crore. But what will the land loosers and locals get? May be Rs. 20,000/- per decimile of land and a JOB for one family member. And now come to the JOB. Padhi sahib, which type of job will they be given? This is clear that there is no reservation in MNCs. Then how an MNC can give job of Officer level in their firm? Further, at this time there is a serious scarcity of TECHNICALLY EDUCATED TRIBES in Jharkhand. Forget about Technical education, there is the scarcity of matric pass guys in tribal villages. Can these MNCs give the responsible post to such local people and pay the handsome money. The answer is big NO. Padhi Sahab, I am also working in one of the largest Plant of its type in Asia. In the Plant there is NO OFFICER belonging to the family of land loosers. An outsider like me earns atleast 50,000/- pm to 1,50,000 per month. And the land loosers are working as JHADUWALIS, GRASS CUTTERS etc and few are working as TECHNICIANS, FITTERS, WELDERS etc. That too, in CONTRACT. They are only being paid the minimum daily wages. Even a technician is earning Rs. 5000/- per month and sometimes it add up to Rs. 8000/- consider his OT (overtime). Also, those JHADUWALIs etc need to get their attendance cum daily progress report chart signed by the outside Officers like me for their wages. Some of the locals get 2-4 weeks job in a year. Some are given some health hazardous work. What a pity? Padhi sahib, tribes are uneducated. And, No company can give such uneducated people the job of officer rank. Means, “KHET EK ADIVASI KA, ROTI KISI AUR KA.” Before setting up an industry, the locals (whether it is tribal or non tribal) must be educated, so that they can work as officers level. They must be given TECHNICAL TRAINING also, so that they can work in machines (like compressor, Pumps, blowers, heat exchanger, various instruments and control systems etc.). Sir, me and you have never lost our lands to the industries so we both may not realize the pain of losing land and not getting proper compensation. Now you come to environment aspects. It is well known (I guess you are also aware of this) that industry means pollution – pollution of SOIL, WATER, AIR. And, it is very sad to say that NO companies are seriously worried about this. Again don’t go with their so called “QHSE (Quality, Health, Safety & Environment)” policies. These are only the POLICIES. They will talk about ISO 9001, ISO 14001 or OHSAS 18001, labour laws, factories act and like that. Mostly these are paper works. Practically these rules / acts / regulations are very difficult to be implemented fully. Moto of “MORE PRODUCTION, MORE PROFIT and above rules are contradictory. There are so many factors which affect the System. Generally, the chemicals /equipment which are needed in water treatment, or exhaust gas purifying units are very costly. Who will like to afford these at the cost of PROFIT? Do the business for 10-15 years, make billions of dollars there, and forget about social welfare and environment. I don’t know whether there is any organization exists like “Jharkhand Pollution Control Board (JPCB)?” I don’t know whether there is any govt / autonomous body which control FACTORIES in Jharkhand. There are many MINES in Jharkhand, but I don’t know whether all those mines are working with proper MINING LICENSE. As far the effect of Pollution due to a factory is concerned, the industrialist (owners) and its officers will be the least affected. Sir, they will be sitting in AC offices. Ultimately the land loosers become loosers in all aspects. Recently I have heard that a steel MNC is willing to set up a “GREEN STEEL PLANT” in Jharkhand. This is also beyond my imagination. How can a steel plant be a GREEN PLANT? As many of you may be knowing that the STEEL PLANTS are among the most POLLUTING PLANTS in the world. At least I must request Mr. Manoj Padhi sahib to visit a STEEL PLANT. Yes, Mr. Padhi, we need to think about the environment after 1000 years along with the next 5 year requirements. You know sir, these industrialist themselves talk about “SUSTAINED PRODUCTION” but those people are mostly interested in making “QUICK and MORE MONEY” which is contradictory. Sir, we are depleting the natural resources, particularly the power / energy resources very fastly; that you cannot guess what will happen 10 years later. Then, you might have heard about the incidents of Kalinganagar or Singur. I ask you Mr. Padhi Sir, can you please explain who has given right to an Industrialist to forcibly take land from a land owner, if the land owner is not willing to give; and that too by killing the land owners! This is not done sir! Is it justified? If the land owners are not willing, you sit with them, listen to their demands; negotiate with them. If you feel that their demands are impossible to be fulfilled from the Business point of view, you forget that land and go somewhere else. But man, don’t gun them down. If you do that, then what is the difference between you and an terrorist / Maoist? What I want to say is that the above mentioned aspects must be taken care of while setting up any industry in a tribal area. Industrialization only cannot help the tribes; we need to address their educational needs first. Their agriculture needs to be equally supported. After all, Developed AGRICULTURE can give more (more stable, more sustainable and more in quantity) EMPLOYMENT than the LARGE MNCs.
Sincerely Yours MMunda
