Super Normal:

January 10/2012: The usually suave and reticent Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seems to be in a belligerent mood. That he is not going to take everything dished out by the Centre lying down was clear from the manner in which he sharply reacted to two recent remarks independently made by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and Dinsha J Patel, Union Minister of State for Mines. Montek and Patel were responding to Orissa’s long-standing demand on two different issues. For long the State has pleaded with the Centre to accord it special status on the lines of that bestowed on Bihar, but each time the demand was raised, the Centre did not find it fit enough to include Orissa in the special category, even pointing out that comparison with Bihar does not hold water in this case. Montek contended that since the State has grown at the average annual rate of 9 per cent over the decade, it has no locus standi to demand special status. This betrays a lack of his historical perspective about Orissa which has always suffered at the hands of Centre, mostly for political reasons. Apart from politics, sheer economic bungling as happened in the legendary ‘milching of the cows’ in the form of ‘freight equalization’ practiced in this country immediately after Independence, the brunt of which was borne by states of the East such as Orissa and Bihar also is history. The Deputy Chairman should have been more circumspect than brusque when he virtually held the attractive growth rate against the State. Orissa has certain geographical and natural disadvantages over the rest of the country. The State is prone to cyclones, droughts, floods and famines and these cast a heavy burden on the exchequer. By no means are we suggesting that it has done exceedingly well fighting on these fronts. Indeed, there have been scams, leakages and diversions of funds. Yet, some special consideration for the State instead of rejecting the idea wholesale would have been in the right spirit of a federal setup.

As for Patel, he earned the wrath of the Chief Minister for the Centre’s refusal to toe his (Naveen’s) line and impose Mineral Resources Rent Tax (MRRT). Patel’s missive came in reply to an August 2011 letter that the Chief Minister wrote to Prime Minister on the subject. The Union State Minister in his letter pointed out that the Centre did not agree with the Orissa government’s view that miners in the state are earning `super normal profits’. He, however, admitted that the miners are earning profits. There is a minor issue of nomenclature involved here. Neither the State nor the Centre has defined what constitutes `super normal profits’. But for our purpose let us take this kind of terminology to mean ballooning profits year after year. This benefit is made by a few individuals and families who behave like vultures and feast on the carcass of the state by owning mines that, for no apparent reasons, seem to belong to their private properties list. It is significant to note that Orissa is the only mining state among the few to ask for imposition of the levy drawing on the Australian model. Though mining is admittedly both capital and labour intensive, everybody knows that it is a profitable venture, be it in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa or even Goa. That is why there is so much of clamour for entering this sector, particularly after ore and metal prices started spiraling globally. Miners became rich and powerful overnight as in the case of the Rungtas, Patnaiks and Ahluwalias of Orissa who started from scratch and acquired power and pelf in no time. Last year when the residence and office premises of the Bellary brothers of Karnataka were raided, the CBI came up with a mindboggling inventory of items usually credited with treasures of kings and nawabs.

To say that miners have a major lobby is to only iterate the fact. Most of them are into illegal mining which is where they make mega bucks. If Patel was only talking about the legally run mines, if ever there is any such thing in India, that follow the rule book and dig earth strictly in the allocated zones and not an inch more, then the Union Minister is far removed from reality. Mining, as it happens in our country, is a highly collusive venture of the corrupt, powerful and the greedy that gang up to plunder wealth and pauperize the region. It should not be forgotten that these are all government lands and the mine owners are mere lease holders. They should not have their leases renewed after every 5 years. That system alone would ensure the same people or families do not get all the money while the poor workers who sweat it out in the mines get a pittance. Patel’s remark that the Government needs to undertake a study to find out if the miners are making anything other than normal profits is abnormal to say the least, prompting Naveen to retort that the Minister is playing into the hands of the powerful mining lobby. Patel’s suggestion that the State can garner additional revenue under the proposed Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation (MMDR) Bill 2011 tabled in Parliament recently also did not find favour with Naveen.

According to him, it was nothing but a dilatory tactic by the Centre as the royalty revision and passing of the MMDR Bill would take a long time to fructify. Since the stand-off on the issue continues, it would be a commendable step if the State Government came out with a White Paper on the subject of mining, mine owners and their career graphs and also the damage to the eco diversity of those areas. This kind of a document, especially in the context of the Chief Minister’s assertion that the Orissa government has all the facts and figures to prove the point that miners in the State are raking in ‘super normal profits’, would shed light, at a national level, on the huge corruption taking place all over because people like Montek and Patel cover up for the guilty. That would not only help bell the cat but also make people aware of the immensity of the clandestine operations that are still going gung ho.