Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Villages in this region are trapped in a cruel irony. Below the surface, according to officials surveys, is a vast treasure of diamonds. But above, the villagers are buried in abject poverty.
In 1990, when 60-year-old Barnu, a farmer, found a diamond ore, villagers worshipped the soil and even sacrificed a goat in the hope that the discovery would see an end to their poverty-stricken days. Barnu then sold the ore to the village sarpanch for just Rs 150. Twelve years later, the villagers8217; prayers remain unanswered.
|
Special police guards ward off 8216;8216;unauthorised persons8217;8217;
|
Diamond exploration remains a pipe dream in this area, bound by bureaucratic red-tape. The result: villagers continue to go hungry in the struggle to make ends meet. This year has been particularly bad due to the drought situation.
8216;8216;I know there are diamonds beneath my feet but it8217;s all government wealth, not mine. So it8217;s pointless for me to think that this will change my fortune or bring me money, clothes and food,8217;8217; says 35-year-old Jungle Singh.
As if to underline his point, two sites where surveys have detected kimberlite, Pehalikhand and Behradih, are now guarded by special armed forces and forest guards round-the-clock to ward off 8216;8216;unauthorised persons8217;8217;.
A primary school which opened three years back hardly has any students as parents cannot afford clothes for their wards. Most families depend on forest produce for their living. Often, women and children stand in the middle of the road to flag down speeding vehicles and ask for money.
So why aren8217;t the diamonds being mined? Ask Chief Minister Ajit Jogi. In 1997, Jogi led an agitation against then undivided Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh8217;s decision to involve foreign companies like De Beers in the diamond extraction work. For five days, he walked to several villages in the area, emphasising his demand that the local Adivasis be given a due share. Jogi also accused Digvijay of receiving Rs 50 crore for awarding the contract to De Beers. After all that, Digvijay allotted the contract to B. Vijay Kumar, a company of film financer Bharat Shah.
Interestingly, Jogi changed his stand after he became the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. Two months back, he granted diamond mining permits for Durg, Damtari and Kanker districts to De Beers. In all, 11 permits have been granted to half-a-dozen firms, most of which have foreign collaborators.
Meanwhile, B. Vijay Kumar, which had floated a joint venture with undivided Madhya Pradesh8217;s Mineral Development Corporation, dragged the case to court after the Jogi government cancelled its permit last year. And De Beers is back, eyeing the same sites that it lost out on in 1999.
8216;8216;We have opened the field of diamond mining to the private sector. Whoever comes to us will be recommended to the Centre for grant of permit. The only precaution is that the company should have a sound financial background so that it can start work immediately, providing jobs and sharing the benefits with locals,8217;8217; says Jogi.
On the cancellation of B. Vijay Kumar8217;s permit, the government maintains that the company failed to start work and fulfill some of the other terms of the agreement. 8216;8216;The matter is sub-judice,8217;8217; says P. Raghavan, principal secretary of mines and industry, refusing to comment further.
In a curious turn, villagers in Gariaban now claim that a fresh lobbying has started within the Congress in favour of B. Vijay Kumar. The company, on the other hand, claims that it could not complete some of the mandatory aerial and ground surveys since it had not received some of the forest clearances. 8216;8216;We had already set up our sample testing laboratory and our work was at an advanced stage,8217;8217; says Vinod Saha, a geologist with the company.
On another front, Faroog Memon, a Gariban-based journalist who broke the diamond discovery story in 1990, confirms reports of illegal mining. An FIR was even lodged at the Mainpur police station three months back. 8216;8216;This happened despite the presence of security personnel. So serious doubts were raised about the involvement of the personnel, and not the villagers as alleged,8217;8217; he says.
Amidst all this, local tribals have approached government officials for being given the mining permits. Chhattar Singh Thakur, vice-president of the Adivasi Vikas Parishad, says the organisation reminding Jogi of his own stand of not allowing foreign companies to rob the tribals of their diamond wealth. 8216;8216;We want to be partners, not beggars,8217;8217; he asserts. His plan of action: uniting the 62 local panchayats in pursuing this demand. But then, as Thakur himself admits, a few villagers have already joined hands with the companies to become their 8216;8216;agents8217;8217;, thus affecting their cause.
