Lax easing: Change system, share benefits
In the absence of stringent laws and strong institutions, mining remains one of the most unregulated of activities in the country despite its huge social and environmental fallouts. It may be true that it takes a lot of time to get a mine lease sanctioned after doing the rounds of a number of byzantine government departments, but once permission is granted there is almost no capacity within the government to regulate mining.
Mining is one of the very few sectors in which laws relating to environmental and social fallouts have not been codified in detail. The environmental law that has been tailored for mining, under the Mineral Conservation and Development Rules, 1988, is a two-page collection of empty statements which leaves ample scope for mine-owners and regulators to do nothing. A sample: "Wherever possible the waste rock, overburden, etc. shall be backfilled into the mine excavations with a view to restoring the land to its original use as far as possible.'
Multiplicity
Then there is institutional confusion. The Indian Bureau of Mines (ibm) and state pollution control boards (spcbs) are responsible for monitoring environmental fallouts. ibm also clears mine plans and mine closure plans, but the moef clears environment impact assessments (eias). With overlapping jurisdictions, ibm and spcbs do not have enough manpower to monitor large-scale mines, leave alone small, medium and illegal ones. In Orissa, of the 300-odd officially operating mines, the spcb has only 172 under its regulatory net. The situation is no different in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. spcbs have stopped taking legal action against violators, because procedures are time-consuming, they don't have legal capacity and violators usually walk. To stop large-scale violations, credible deterrence, rather than legalistic nitpicking, is essential.
ibm's inspection reports show that on an average it visits 80-90 per cent of officially operating mines annually, finding about 50 per cent of them violating the law. It prosecutes about 10 per cent of violators. Less than 1 per cent of the violators have operations suspended.
Mine closure is another problem area. It was only in 2003 that closure plans were made integral to the clearance process in India. But what we see in closure plans are pits disguised as water bodies and waste dumps as plantations. Internationally, mine closure is recognised as a major component of mining and