[sustran] FW: RELEASE: MoEF shirks responsibility in reviewing massive envi ronmental and social impacts of Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project

[Paul Barter]

-----Original Message-----
From: Environment Support Group [mailto:esg at bgl.vsnl.net.in]
Sent: Wednesday, 15 August 2001 1:56
To: sustran at po.jaring.my
Subject: RELEASE: MoEF shirks responsibility in reviewing massive
environmental and social impacts of Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure
Corridor Project
Importance: High



MoEF shirks responsibility in reviewing massive environmental and social
impacts 
of Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project


Peculiarly decides to review only the "Expressway" Component


								14 August,
2001

Press Release


The Ministry of Environment and Forests has washed its hands off reviewing
the 
environmental and social impacts of the massive Bangalore Mysore
Infrastructure 
Corridor project promoted by M/s Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise.
Without 
any logic or rationale and taking an extremely narrow and technical view of
its 
role the Ministry has decided "the scope of the project for the purpose of
this 
clearance under reference is limited to the road/expressway component of the

BMIC project".  It has thus completely shrugged off its responsibility in
applying 
its mind to the extensive and adverse environmental and social impacts
anticipated, 
including the diversion of large tracts of forest-land for the project.  The

Expressway is only a very small component of this project for it includes
the 
building of five major cities to locate very large industrial developments,
tourism 
destinations, large golf courses and entertainment centres for the 'global
elite' 
and extravagant housing projects.   


This project is proposed in the densely populated and highly irrigated major

agricultural zone between Bangalore and Mysore.  The 5 lakhs population
anticipated 
to live in these new cities would be in addition to the combined population
of 
75 lakhs that presently live in Bangalore and Mysore and the cities in
between 
(major ones being Ramnagar, Channapatna, Maddur, Mandya and Srirangapatna).

Over 170 villages will be directly affected by this project and the
potential 
displacement when all components of the project are ready would be in the
region 
of 200,000 according to preliminary estimates.  


All along the project has been wrapped in secrecy wherein the Government of
Karnataka 
has defended the right of the company to not share public domain documents
pertaining 
to the project.  This is stark contrast to the progressive image Karnataka
Government 
attempts to project for itself by claiming it is a government that values
transparency. 
 People's demand for information on this project has been met with brutal
attacks 
by the Police, including in Statutory Public Hearings, and the case of human

rights excesses by the State is presently being reviewed by the National
Human 
Rights Commission.


Massive Displacement deliberately underplayed:  The state subsidies to this
project 
are shocking indeed.  21,000 acres of land will be acquired by the State for

the Project of which 7,000 acres are Government land in the form of forest
areas 
and other revenue land.  This land will be passed on to NICE at Rs. 10 an
acre! 
 The remaining land will be acquired from the farmers and sold to NICE at a
highly 
subsidised rate, presumably Rs. 1 lakh an acre.  Should NICE fail to
implement 
the project, and there are enough and more clauses in the Framework
Agreement 
for it to slip out of its commitment, the land will continue to vest with
the 
company.  Also in variance to normal practice, NICE has been waived the
responsibility 
of undertaking the rehabilitation and settlement of the displaced
communities. 
 NICE has deliberately underplayed the extent of displacement by distorting
questionnaires 
on base level socio-economic information and ridiculous collecting details
of 
some affected persons that include only: the name of the household, its
address 
and the person conducting the survey!


Water Supply committed without consultation of downstream cities: The
Government 
of Karnataka has committed to supply the project 150 million litres of water

per day to begin with.  This has been done without regard to the fact that
such 
an allotment is about a quarter of the water presently supplied by Bangalore

Water Supply and Sewerage Board to the entire 70 lakh population of
Bangalore. 
 Considering that NICE would be allowed to draw this water upstream of the
location 
where Bangalore draws its water from River Cauvery, the highly crisis of
water 
supply to Bangalore will worsen further.  Per capita consumption of water in

Bangalore today is 80 litres per capita per day (lpcd) when the NICE
settlements 
will be assured over 300 lpcd.


Fraudulent Claims of the techno-economic capacity of the developer:  NICE
has 
consistently claimed including in all its official correspondence and
project 
documentation that M/s Vanasse Hangen Brustlin of Boston (VHB) is a part of
the 
company and consortium developing the project.  VHB Executive Richard Hangen

has asserted that his company has never been involved in the project except
for 
a brief period in the project inception during 1995.  He has even
controversially 
threatened action against the undersigned if they implicated his company in
this 
controversial project.  This matter has been brought to the attention of
both 
the Government and the media.  The Government has not ever bothered to
verify 
this issue, and NICE now claims VHB is involved in the project, and thus
sought 
financing for the project from ICICI.  Needless to say, that it is such
whimsical 
treatment of techno-economic considerations of public funding advanced to
so-called 
private financed projects that has brought many a financial institution to
ruin. 
 Frittering away public savings thus is nothing short of a criminal act.


Viable alternatives not examined, perhaps deliberately ignored:  The
Government 
of Karnataka is proposing upgradation of the existing Bangalore Mysore State

Highway to a four lane expressway and several experts have confirmed that
the 
existing broad gauge railway corridor could easily and without further land
acquisition 
be doubled.  Not only would this make the NICE 'expressway' redundant, but
the 
public support for the same highly controversial and questionable.  Clearly
public 
interest has not formed the basis of this project gaining support of the
Karnataka 
Government and now the Ministry of Environment and Forests.


The Ministry of Environment and Forests could have claimed exemption from
being 
responsible for reviewing the financial and techno-economic considerations
of 
the project, but it certainly cannot do the same when there is a clear
responsibility 
vested with it to review environemntal and social impacts of infrastructure
projects. 
 Sec 2 (I) of the Environment Protection Act clearly makes it the
inescapable 
responsibility of the Ministry to coordinate "actions by the State
Governments, 
officers and other authorities _
(a)	under this Act, or the rules made thereunder; or
(b)	under any law for the time being in force which is relatable to the
objects 
of this Act"


And the object clearly includes taking "appropriate steps for the protection

and improvement of human environment".
 

The Ministry has also failed to appreciate the fact that the process of
review 
of the project has been mired in controversy, and serious human rights
violations 
have marked the Public Hearings "held" on the project last year.  The
National 
Human Rights Commission has taken cognisance of this and is due to give its
decision 
soon.  But without waiting for the decision of this Statutory Authority, the

Ministry seems to have taken a decision to clear the "Expressway" component
of 
the project, claiming the impacts of the other components of the project are

not within its realm.   This is a specious claim given the ambit of the
Environment 
Protection Act.  The Ministry's Executive also seems to have not taken into
confidence 
the Expert Committee reviewing Infrastructure Projects, who recently
officially 
acknowledged that a large number of representations questioning the project
had 
been received and were being reviewed.  No evidence has also been presented
in 
the clearance whether this review of the representations was ever conducted
as 
committed.


Not only has the Ministry betrayed the public trust reposed in them in
taking 
a competent decision, but has also abandoned its mandate.  We challenge this

decision as being unconstitutional and will undertake civil and legal action

to ensure the project does not proceed on the basis of such questionable
review 
and decisions.



Leo F. Saldanha			Maj. Gen S. G. Vombatkere	Dr. H. V.
Vasu
Coordinator				Convenor
Convenor
Environment Support Group	Mysore Grahakara Parishat	Karnataka
Vimochana Ranga
Esg at bgl.vsnl.net.in 		sgvombatkere at hotmail.com
kaviram89 at hotmail.com 


PS:  For more documentation on the project and its impacts a
and a copy of the clearance letter please visit:
http://www.indiatogether.org/campaigns/bmic


Address for further contact:

Environment Support Group ®
S-3, Rajashree Apartments, 18/57, 1st Main Road, S. R. K. Gardens, 
Jayanagar, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560 041. INDIA
Telefax: 91-80-6341977 Fax: 91-80-6723926 (PP)
Email: esg at bgl.vsnl.net.in 
Website: http://www.altindia.net/esg/index.htm  




Environment Support Group (R)
S-3, Rajashree Apts., 1st Main, SRK Gardens
Bannerghatta Road, Jayanagar
Bangalore 560 041. INDIA
Telefax: 91-80-6341977 Fax: 91-80-6723926 (PP)
Email: esg at bgl.vsnl.net.in