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Journalism of Courage
The draft bill from the mines ministry that is meant to begin the overhaul of Indias outdated and archaic mining regulations the Mines and Minerals Development amp; Regulation Bill,2010 had already been generally agreed to by the group of ministers scrutinising the legislation. Yet the deputy chairman of the Plan-
ning Commission,Montek Singh Ahluwalia,has made a telling point or two about a particular provision in the bill: to ensure that 26 per cent of the net profits from mining should be shared with local populations. The exact mechanism of this provision is still a little hazy. But Ahluwalia is concerned,reportedly,about the more macro implications. He feels that,if we end up with too high a cumulative royalty burden compared with international standards,this will only discourage future investments in the mining sector.
This is a provision that needs to be thought through better. Areas that surround mining sites are some of the least developed,in terms of social indicators,in India. But the responsibility for increasing social indicators there cannot be shrugged off by government. And particularly not to individual companies. Governments are,in the end,accountable to people; mining companies are not and thus who knows what sort of job theyll do? The equitable sharing of super-normal mining profits is something we need to get done. One efficient way to do this would be at the stage at which mining rights are auctioned; we would also need a market-based system that automatically detects windfall profits,too. The bills current mechanism does not seem to do the job.
