Coal India

Coal India

Resettlement & Rehabilitation (R&R) Policy, 1994

C

oal is the dominating source of commercial energy in India. Around 70% of the country's energy need is met by this solid fuel in a relatively inexpensive manner. This will continue to be the major source of energy in the coming few decades, mainly due to scarce reserves of oil and gas which will exhaust in less than 20 years unless fresh deposits are found, environmental and rehabilitation problems associated with hydro-electric power generation system, serious environmental problems associated with nuclear energy and the fact that development of renewable energy source is still not commercially viable or popular. As against this backdrop, coal reserves (245 billion tones as on January 2004) in India are adequate to support the energy needs for more than 200 years at the present rate of consumption. Therefore, the extraction of coal is imminent in the times to come. But, this mining of coal also causes sufferings and displacement of the local population.

Coal India Ltd., which is the largest public sector unit engaged in mining of coal in India, in order to ameliorate the agony, or soothe down the agitated people, came up with Resettlement & Rehabilitation (R&R) Policy in 1994. It is one of a few public enterprises which have formulated R&R policy, an effort worth commendable.

Objectives of R&R Policy

The Coal India Ltd's R&R policy has been framed keeping in mind the following objectives:

1. Avoiding or minimizing displacement - The policy states that all due diligence would be carried out before hand to explore the possibility of alternative site and project design so as to minimize the incident of subsequent resettlement and rehabilitation. In case, the policy further says, the project adversely affects people, proper rehabilitation and resettlement action plan should be prepared by the project authorities.

2. Safeguarding interest of the affected - The policy has been formulated in order to uphold the interest of the displaced and project-affected. The main thrust of the policy is to ensure that the affected ones improve, or at least regain, their former standard of living after a reasonable transition period.

3. Resettlement & Rehabilitation as a development programme - The R&R to be taken up as a development programme with provision of sufficient resources and opportunities to share in project's benefits for the project-affected. The R&R to be conceived as complementary to government schemes in rural development and approvals, concurrence and support from the concerned government authorities to be sought for proper implementation. Also, the people to be taken into confidence with their participation in preparation and implementation of rehabilitation plans.

Salient Features of the R&R Policy

1. Acceptance of the agony suffered by the displaced - The policy makes an effort to empathies with the displaced, and accepts that the acquisition of land greatly affects the lives and livelihood of the local population and eliminates many traditional sources of income available with the local population.

At the same time, also proposes that by informing the potentially affected people, at the earliest possible stage, about the project and options for resettlement and rehabilitation, would ease the transition to new lifestyles.

2. Adult individuals as unit of entitlement - The policy considers adults as eligible for the benefits and categorizes them into -

A. Land owners, including those with whom government land is settled:

1. Persons from whom land is acquired including tribal's cultivating land under traditional rights;

2. Persons whose homestead is acquired; and

3. Persons from whom land and their homestead are acquired.

B. Landless, who derive their income from land to be acquired

1. Sharecroppers, land lessees, tenants and day labourers;

2. Tribals dependent on forest produce; and

3. Persons whose homestead is acquired.

3. Compensation Packages - Different packages for different category of people. Package-A offers employment for a member from displaced family, Package-B talks about compensating with land in lieu of lost land, Package-C proposes non-farm self employment, Package-D offers rehabilitation assistance, whereas Package-E offers replacement cost for the homestead and transporting allowance.

4. Creation of Community Facilities - Resettlement site to be provided with a school, road with street light, pucca drain, pond, dugwell and/or tubewell, community centre, place of workship, dispensary, grazing land for cattle and playground.

5. Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Dispute Mechanism.

Critique of the R&R Policy

1. Minimization of displacement

The policy talks about minimization of the incidents of displacement caused out of the mining projects, however there is hardly any concrete plan spelled out to do so. All has been left to the whims and fancies of the authorities, to judge the viability or the optimal location of the site of the project. Instead, specific steps like social appraisals that give the concerned and affected people a legally enforceable right to question the optimality (in terms of displacement) and public interest of the project be given. The requirement to get prior informed consent of at least 50 per cent of the gram sabhas affected by the project, and the setting up a Rehabilitation Commission with the responsibility, among others, of verifying the necessity of displacement, and the extent of displacement that is likely to occur and assessing each referred project that involves displacement to ensure it adopts the least displacing alternative.

The acquisition of good agricultural land for nonagricultural purposes should be avoided as far as possible, as in most of the projects quality agricultural land has not been compensated well with similar quality land leading to dissatisfaction among the people displaced.

2. Definition of Project Affected People (PAPs)

Persons