Northeast’s battles: Land, coal & corruption

THE question of land in the Northeast is central to political power and identity. Let me illustrate it through three recent examples.

A Guwahati High Court Judge's admonishment of a corporate lawyer about a private company being allotted 3,000 bighas in the thickly forested and resource-rich Dima Hasao district has drawn wide media attention. The allotment was made by the local district council for the firm, owned by JK Lakshmi Cement of the New Delhi-based JK Group, to operate a mine and cement plant. Public interest in the issue has soared, especially after official videos of the court proceedings surfaced on social media, where the lawyer appeared clueless about the topography of the area. Is it a joke, the judge snapped, asserting that public interest was paramount.

Dima Hasao and two other districts in Assam are governed under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which gives locally elected politicians control over resources such as land, forests and water. The state government does not have much power over these subjects, which can be compared to the district panchayati system but is meant to protect tribal rights as the communities in these areas are poor and vulnerable.

The allotment was made after the Dima Hasao Autonomous Council passed resolutions making the land transfer in October and November last year. Two villages were informed that the acquisition would be done and they would receive compensation. But news accounts of the process say that the council received the bulk of the Rs 50-crore compensation and most villagers were given cheques for Rs 2 lakh while the village heads got Rs 15 lakh. Reactions and opposition erupted, especially after bulldozers (now a familiar sight in Assam aimed at evicting people from forest lands) arrived. A writ petition challenging the allotment was filed in the high court and this is the case where the judge made his remarks.

While the Sixth Schedule empowers tribal groups with specific powers, what needs to be asked is if the council applied its mind rigorously to the issue before deciding.

In the neighbouring state of Meghalaya, coal mining is one of the most sensitive political, economic and environmental issues. Allegations of extensive corruption and misgovernance have been swirling around for decades and the disappearance of lakhs of tonnes of the mineral under the nose of officials earlier this year despite a court order provoked anger.

But when nearly 4,000 tonnes of coal vanished last month and the state Excise Minister claimed it could have been washed away by heavy rains, derision replaced anger. The minister, Kyrmen Shylla, said, “Meghalaya receives the highest rainfall. You never know... because of rain, the coal might have swept away. Chances are very high.” But then he appeared to back out, perhaps, because even he realised how absurd this sounded. “I cannot blame just the rain. It could be or it could not be. I really don't have any kind of details,” he said.

But the issue is anything but funny. The National Green Tribunal banned coal mining in the state in 2014, following a series of mining disasters in what is known as rat-hole mines, where miners have to crawl into poorly ventilated mines to dig out coal. Yet illegal mining has persisted and, in the process, undermined the state's economy as it is untaxed; big names are said to be involved, but are only whispered about and never surface in the public domain.

According to the inquiry committee appointed by the high court to investigate illegal mining and transportation of coal, more than 1,500 coal depots were to be inspected by state officials. Only a handful have been checked and Justice BP Katakey is exasperated by the slow pace of the work of the state government. “I find the progress in East Jaintia Hills (district) very slow and unsatisfying, while the quantity in other districts is very small,” he remarked.

Meghalaya depends on Central government funds to run its administrative machinery and projects and raises limited financial resources of its own. However, some funding comes from what are euphemistically called EAPs or externally aided projects which are financed by such lending institutions as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the German development organisation, GIZ.

The extent of the coal mining — and transportation — problem was revealed in a road accident on the busy Shillong-Guwahati highway. A large truck lost control and overturned, blocking traffic and spilling its load. It was carrying a full consignment of coal. The truck was moved from the accident site but the coal lay on the highway. “It'll vanish by the morning,” said a Shillong resident after hearing of the incident.

The challenge of accountability is seen most vividly in a report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG), which was tabled in the Meghalaya Assembly in July. In a stinging indictment of the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (which has been in existence since 1964), the report underlined that "There was a total misappropriation of Rs 7.08 crore, comprising Rs 5.49 crore from 2001 to 2004 and an additional Rs 1.59 crore misappropriated between March and May 2014. Despite recovering Rs 1.69 crore, significant amounts remain outstanding, with Rs 5.39 crore yet to be recovered. Despite partial recovery of the embezzled funds, these were not disclosed in the Annual Accounts for proper monitoring of recovery of the balance amount."

The report was for 2017-2018 and pulls no punches — but the question is: how does the Meghalaya Government plan to follow up on it, apart from tabling the report in the Assembly? Will it seek to fix responsibility or simply repeat the past refrain of better financial discipline and improved training of staff? Granted, these amounts look like small change, given the scale of defalcation and financial misdemeanours which are reported on a regular basis from the major metros and larger states.

Meghalaya is a small state. Last year, the Niti Aayog said it was the third poorest state in India after Bihar and Jharkhand, graded on the basis of multi-dimensional poverty. We need to remember that funds that disappear, as in the JHAC, could have made a crucial difference for people — between remaining in poverty and rising out of it.

Sanjoy Hazarika is an independent columnist based in Shillong.