NewAge, August 19, 2008. Dhaka, Bangladesh
Those who campaign against the ruthless exploitative practices of trans-national mining companies say, increased investment results in human rights abuses, especially against rural communities which the companies want to dislocate and uproot. They also say that the role of the state in extractive sector governance and citizens’ protection diminishes, while its role in protecting and promoting the interests of trans-national corporations increases. One sees that happening in Phulbari, over Asia Energy’s proposed Phulbari coal project, writes Rahnuma Ahmed
‘Only when the last tree has withered, and the last fish caught, and the last river been poisoned, will we realise we cannot eat money.’
Cree proverb
‘[the] uprootedness and superfluousness which have been the curse of modern masses since the beginning of the industrial revolution and have become acute with the rise of imperialism at the end of the last century and the break-down of political institutions and social traditions in our own time.’
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1975
‘You cannot eat coal’
‘No, we do not want the coalmine. What will we eat?’ said an elderly woman. I was watching raw, uncut video footage from Phulbari, shot by media activists Zaeed Aziz and Farzana Boby, a couple of days after the killings occurred on August 26, 2006.
Another woman steps into the frame. She vents bitterly, we work daily for our subsistence, we eat from what we earn. That is all we have. If this land is turned into a coalmine, those who eat in exchange of daily wages, where will they go? Where will we live? How will we survive?
Zaeed and Farzana’s film, ‘The Blood-Soaked Banner of Phulbari’, was released soon after the killings in 2006. I watch the beginning sequence. A crowd of men stand at the long-distance bus stand in Phulbari town, they talk to each other and to the film crew. ‘We are poor people,’ says a man, probably in his late-thirties. ‘If I lose my home, how will I earn a living? What use will be the coalmine?’ Who will it benefit?
I return to clips from their uncut footage. A younger woman is sitting in her courtyard, ‘No, I don’t have a husband, I live with my mother, I work with her. In the same place. If the coalmine comes, we, that is, us mothers-and-daughters, where will we go? We will be scattered from our relatives, we will lose our ties.’
‘Where will we go?’ This question is repeatedly raised by villagers, by both men and women, old and young, by farmers, day-labourers, petty businessmen, schoolchildren, college-going youths, both Bengalis and adivasis, who belong to Santal, Oraon, Pahan, Mahali and Munda communities. By Hindus and Muslims.
‘Two coalmines have been built in neighbouring areas,’ one of the men standing at the bus-stand in the Blood-Soaked Banner documentary had said. ‘What development has it brought, tell me?’
I turn to Ronald Halder and Philip Gain’s film, ‘Phulbari’, an activist film released by SEHD earlier this year. Abdul Jalil of village Chouhati turns his face away in pent-up anger when asked how he has benefited from the coalmine in Barapukuria. ‘Benefit? How have I benefited? It has crippled me. I cannot describe the damage it has done. Those who have benefited from it have. We have been devastated.’
Azizunessa of the same village does not mince her words. She too has suffered from the Barapukuria coalmine. ‘We are poor people, we raise a cow, a goat or two. But the security guards, they do not let us enter, they do not allow us to cut even a blade of grass. So how does the coalmine that they have built, help us? How do I get my bowl of rice? They do not give me work in the coalmines. My sons have no food. How will they live? Only Allah knows what our situation is like. How our days pass. Or don’t. I did agricultural work, I winnowed paddy, I worked, I ate, I brought in one and a half seers of rice from the house I worked in, I fed the children. Work is not something that appears out of nowhere, that daughters-in-law can bring, that poor people can give each other. Why is it that the coalmine has stopped me from working, from feeding myself? The coalmine is protected by barbed wire fences, it is surrounded by high walls. Why?’ Who benefits from the coalmine?
The Phulbari coal project plans to extract coal using open-pit mining method in seven unions and one municipality in four upazilas of Phulbari, Birampur, Nawabganj and Parbatipur in Dinajpur district. The company behind the $1.4-billion project is Asia Energy Corporation (Bangladesh), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the British-registered Global Coal Management Resources Pls. According to Asia Energy, 40,000 people would be involuntarily resettled, 10,000 hectares, primarily of fertile agricultural land, would be required for mine and associated infrastructure. Activists say the number of people evicted is likely to be ten times more. The proposed coal project would divert a river, suck an aquifer dry for thirty years, the life span of the project. Dynamite explosion, environmentalists say, would cause noise and dust pollution, this would be increased by the trucks and trains that will haul away the coal to the port in Sundarban. To prevent flooding, huge pumps will pump out 800 million litres of water daily, from the mine. This will lower the groundwater in an area covering 500 square kilometres. Air and water pollution is likely to spread to surrounding water bodies. Asia Energy plans to create a huge lake after the project is over, but activists predict that the water is likely to be toxic.
GCM has a sustainable development manager who guides their approach. But the global record of mining operations rejects the sustainable development myth. Roger Moody, international researcher and campaigner against exploitation caused by multinational mining, writes in ‘Rocks and Hard Places: The Globalization of Mining’, lesser-developed countries, those with a high degree of dependence on mining, show slower rates of economic growth than their peers. Some countries, he writes, have been worse off. Potosi, a region that has been mined for silver for five centuries, is one of the poorest in Bolivia. Closer home is Orissa, Bihar and Jharkand which provide most of India’s minerals. Bihar has been for many years India’s ‘least developed’ state, while Orissa, in 2005, was ranked as the ‘poorest’ in the country. Mined regions even in advanced and middle-income countries have been the last to share in aggregated wealth. In 1870, Cornwall had 2,000 tin and copper mines. When the last pit was closed in 1998, Cornwall had the highest proportion of low-paid workers. Mineral-dependent economies, largely in Africa, are more likely to experience zero or even negative growth, since labour and capital move away from sustainable sectors to the extractive sector, and domestic products lose their competitive edge on international markets.
And of course, ‘understanding’ risks, albeit from a safe distance, is not the same as being willing to undergo it oneself. Recently, activists from the Alberta Environmental Network showed up at the Oil and Gas Investment Symposium in Calgary, Canada, held by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. The event brought together 85 companies and 375 investors from Canada, the US, and around the world. Those present at the meeting were offered drinking water that Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation peoples claim is toxic. They experience high rates of rare cancers and auto-immune diseases, which they believe are linked to the development of the tar sands.
None of the producers/owners, investors, CEOs drank the water.
26th August 2006
On August 26, 2006, more than 50,000 people took part in protests against the proposed mine, in Phulbari town. People from adjoining towns and villages poured in. The Bangladesh Rifles, a paramilitary force, opened fire on the protesters. Three young men, Tariqul, son of the municipal commissioner and panel chairman, Ameen, a young carpenter, and Salehin of the adjoining upazila Nawabganj died instantly. One to two hundred people are reported to have been injured in the violence unleashed by the BDR and police.
I turn to Zaeed and Boby’s uncut video footage. A woman describes angrily, ‘It was around maghreb, just before the call for prayers, the photographers had left, TV reporters too, that’s when they attacked us.’ To leave no photographic evidence? Another woman butts in, ‘We had chased out the police, I was so furious, I have never had the courage before, since that day I have learnt how to fight. Now, I have limitless courage. I am not afraid to die.’ The woman speaking earlier returns to her story, ‘The military [read BDR] began beating up people, they entered into our homes, they tore down the tin roofs.’ She is indignant, ‘These are people who are meant to protect us, they are law-enforcers.’ Another woman speaks up, ‘Did any of them die? They never do. Did any of them suffer any injuries?’
A woman who was badly beaten says, ‘The BDR entered our villages, they went from house to house. How dare they enter our villages? So we chased them out. But then they regrouped, they came after us. I couldn’t escape, they caught me and beat me very badly.’ The shot shows other women in the courtyard, nodding their heads as they listen.
Off-screen I hear a female voice, ‘Can the government ever defeat the janata?’ A woman wearing a printed sari on-screen says, ‘It is the government which breeds terrorists, they tear down the shops of poor people, they snatch away cigarettes and other items, they break these little cigarette stalls that are run by young boys for a living.’ Another off-screen voice, also a woman’s, speaks up, ‘Ordinary people are never terrorists.’
Most of the women, in no uncertain words, condemned Khaleda Zia, the then prime minister, for having sold out the interests of the country. What kind of a woman is she? Sending soldiers after us, dragging our husbands out of our homes. Does she want to make us widows? Their language was laced with four-letter words, often directed at her, at times at the then energy ministry adviser, Mahmudur Rahman, sometimes at the whole cabinet. I brought up the issue with Nurul Kabir, the editor of this paper. He said with a wry smile, ‘I am most respectful of subaltern languages, but wouldn’t it offend bhodrolok sensibilities?’ We laugh and talk about the gentrification of language, a class-ed mechanism of ruling. Who was it who had said there can be feelings without language, but no language without feelings? Was it not the historian Collingwood? I muse over issues of language, of home and belonging as I search the web and read through newspaper reports of the 26th, and after. I come across news reports stating the energy ministry adviser, Mahmudur Rahman, blamed a ‘small group of leftist parties without any influence whatsoever’ for orchestrating the deaths and injury to people at Phulbari. Asia Energy Bangladesh’s CEO Gary Lye’s words mirror Mahmudur Rahman’s, ‘It’s up to the government, but it would appear to us that the unforgivable events and the needless loss of life and suffering that took place in Phulbari are entirely the fault of the organisers.’
Those who campaign against the ruthless exploitative practices of trans-national mining companies say, increased investment results in human rights abuses, especially against rural communities which the companies want to dislocate and uproot. They also say that the role of the state in extractive sector governance and citizens’ protection diminishes, while its role in protecting and promoting the interests of trans-national corporations increases. One sees that happening in Phulbari, over Asia Energy’s proposed Phulbari coal project.
Mozammel member, a pourasabha member, says in defence of the project, ‘If the government wishes it, how can we prevent it from happening?’ People around him ask, ‘But why do you want the coalmine? Can you not see that it is not in the interests of the people?’ His answer is cruel and simple, ‘We are not for the people. We are for the government.’
The compensation story
In the Blood-Soaked Banner, a man who describes himself as a petty businessman says, ‘Yes, the coal project will bring benefits to some, to those who have built three-storey buildings in the town, those who have made plans of where to relocate, where to build new homes, the businesses that they will start, even, what kind of houses they will build for themselves.’ It will benefit those already-privileged, those who are townspeople. But not those who live off the land, those who make a living from agriculture, from day-labour, and the innumerable number of ways through which poor people make a living. In other words, the majority.
Abdul Jalil of Chouhati, Barapukuria was asked about the compensation that he had received from the government. ‘They gave it in little, little instalments, it took ages, the money dried up as I walked back and forth to collect it.’ Compensation is also tied up with land deeds and titles, a method of possession and ownership that is antagonistic to the adivasi tradition, and their claims to ancestral land. That is probably why Lawrence Tudu of Buski, Birampur says, ‘We will not leave this village, we will not leave our homestead, we will not leave the soil, if necessary, my remains will get buried under this soil.’
Poor people’s claims to compensation are entangled in bureaucracy, and in corporate controlled channels of profiteering. Corporations themselves evade responsibility and accountability as one sees in Magurcchara and Tengratila, where international oil companies have shown great reluctance to pay compensation for the miserable accidents that have occurred.
And compensation for killings? Ameen’s mother when asked said yes, I have received two lakh taka from the government, as compensation. And another twenty thousand from Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League, the then opposition party (interestingly enough, it was the Awami League government that awarded the licensing agreement to Asia Energy, in 1998). But, she says, I hurt, I grieve for my son. I raised him, does compensation lessen my loss? Will money ever call out ‘ma’, or ‘baba’?
Democracy, a world of power
Democracy, writes historian and subaltern theorist Partha Chatterjee in his recent work, ‘The Politics of the Governed’, is no longer government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Twentieth-century techniques of governing population groups, widespread acceptance of the idea of popular sovereignty, the creation of governmental bodies that administer populations but do not provide its citizens with arenas of democratic deliberation, these conditions, says Chatterjee, give rise to democracy becoming a world of power. A world which has startling dimensions, and unwritten rules of engagement.
I see the people of Phulbari voice a collective identity, framed, at first, within the politics of electoral democracy. We have brought this government to power. How can they not do what we want? It is my vote that decides who will be the member of parliament. I elect the chairman. He must work for me, in my interests. A woman adds, what kind of a government is it that pushes us into waging movements? That destroys our peaceful lives, that takes away our sons? We want to return to our normal lives. Increasingly, people’s voices become more assertive. If the government does not value us, we will not value them either. If the government will not provide for us, we do not need this government. We do not need any government.
Amidst the strident assertiveness, a peasant’s words ring out clearly, ‘I am a khetmojur, I till the land. It is the crops I grow that feed the leaders. Am I more valuable, or they?’
Whether elected or un-elected, all governments, both leaders and state functionaries, need to be fed. They would be well-advised to listen to the voices of those who produce. After all, one cannot eat coal. Or money, either.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Cabinet sends back coal policy draft for scrutiny
NewAge, August 14, 2008
The council of advisers on Wednesday sent back the draft coal policy for further scrutiny of the issues related to royalty rate, mined land reclamation and environmental issues.
The council, headed by the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, at a meeting at the Chittagong circuit house, discussed the policy draft and the changes the Energy Division made to the earlier draft of the advisory committee of former BUET vice-chancellor Abdul Matin Patwari.
Although a number of advisers questioned whether the interim government which has only five months in hand should adopt such a sensitive policy, the council unanimously felt that a coal policy was needed to immediately address the growing energy crisis, said sources present at the meeting.
The Energy Division prepared the eighth draft dropping two provisions recommended by the Patwari committee related to the return of the mined land to owners and some criteria on setting the royalty rate. It also withdrew the sections on environmental management during mining from the main text of the policy and included them in the policy appendix.
Some advisers observed the mined land should be returned to owners while others felt returning the land to the owners would be a complex and huge task.
The advisers also debated whether the criteria for setting the royalty should be included in the policy as many felt the proposed 28-member coal sector development committee was enough to set the criteria while others said a set of guidelines should be there in the policy for the committee.
The council in principle agreed that with the current reserve, coal should not be exported and the state-run companies or joint ventures, led by any state-run companies, would get the exploration and mining licences.
The advisers also debated whether the environmental issues should be included in the appendix or in the main text of the policy.
‘The Energy Division was asked to review all the matters and submit the draft again to the council,’ said a source present at the meeting.
Another source said that the division would get a clear picture of what the council’s decision was after getting the minutes of the meeting. ‘Advisers gave their opinions and after getting the minutes, the division will get the idea of what decisions it will need to make on the policy,’ he said.
The council of advisers on Wednesday sent back the draft coal policy for further scrutiny of the issues related to royalty rate, mined land reclamation and environmental issues.
The council, headed by the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, at a meeting at the Chittagong circuit house, discussed the policy draft and the changes the Energy Division made to the earlier draft of the advisory committee of former BUET vice-chancellor Abdul Matin Patwari.
Although a number of advisers questioned whether the interim government which has only five months in hand should adopt such a sensitive policy, the council unanimously felt that a coal policy was needed to immediately address the growing energy crisis, said sources present at the meeting.
The Energy Division prepared the eighth draft dropping two provisions recommended by the Patwari committee related to the return of the mined land to owners and some criteria on setting the royalty rate. It also withdrew the sections on environmental management during mining from the main text of the policy and included them in the policy appendix.
Some advisers observed the mined land should be returned to owners while others felt returning the land to the owners would be a complex and huge task.
The advisers also debated whether the criteria for setting the royalty should be included in the policy as many felt the proposed 28-member coal sector development committee was enough to set the criteria while others said a set of guidelines should be there in the policy for the committee.
The council in principle agreed that with the current reserve, coal should not be exported and the state-run companies or joint ventures, led by any state-run companies, would get the exploration and mining licences.
The advisers also debated whether the environmental issues should be included in the appendix or in the main text of the policy.
‘The Energy Division was asked to review all the matters and submit the draft again to the council,’ said a source present at the meeting.
Another source said that the division would get a clear picture of what the council’s decision was after getting the minutes of the meeting. ‘Advisers gave their opinions and after getting the minutes, the division will get the idea of what decisions it will need to make on the policy,’ he said.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Draft coal policy for Mine Bangla: Proposal goes to cabinet today
Sharier Khan, The Daily Star, August 13, 2008
The eighth draft coal policy that emphasises immediate government-led action in coal sector to meet the country's surging energy demand is likely to be placed before the caretaker government's cabinet today.
The draft proposes to set up a "mine Bangla" in line with Petrobangla by 2010 to spearhead different mining schemes. This government body will take strategic partners from private sector through open tenders for quick development of the schemes.
Other proposals include compulsory release of 20 percent shares of a mining venture to the local market as per the laws of the Securities Exchange Commission. When selling back, shareowners will be only able to sell those to the government at market price.
"Because of excessive revisions and inputs from a wide number of people, the draft policy now sounds more like a law than a policy," says a source. "And this was exactly the observation of the law ministry about the policy when the energy ministry sent the draft to the law ministry a few months back."
The draft policy tries to touch almost all aspects of coal development. "That is why the law ministry observed that instead of such a policy, the government should work on several laws instead of just one," the source adds.
The coal policy was first drafted in December 2005. The seventh draft was prepared by a committee to review the draft policy. Headed by former VC of Buet Prof Abdul Matin Patwari, the 10-member committee submitted its report to the energy ministry in December last year.
The ministry itself has also modified some of the contents. Only recently, the ministry has forwarded the draft to the Cabinet Division for approval by the cabinet.
Under this policy, private companies will not have sole ownership over any coal mining deal and must come as partners with a national coalmining company.
The draft restricts export of coal to be used as fuel, allowing exports of higher grade coking coal.
It lays out a detailed plan on how the government should handle rehabilitation and resettlement of communities that will be displaced by a mining project. The Patwari committee had suggested that the land acquired by a project be returned to the original owner upon completion of the project.
The land and the law ministries however deleted this part as it conflicts with the laws of the land. "Once the government acquires a piece of land, it can't be returned to the original owner. The government can however restore the land and allow its agricultural use," says a source.
The policy does not restrict open pit mining, as was initially demanded by some pressure groups. Instead, it identifies mining method as a technical issue, which should be decided on the basis of individual cases and technical viability.
The policy prioritises private partnership that puts highest emphasis on coal-fired power projects.
A 29-member committee led by the energy ministry will review coal sector master plan, royalty, the sector's development issues from time to time and give decisions.
By 2010, the government must frame a coal sector master plan, identify coal zones, review coal industry infrastructures and initiate restructuring measures.
It will also restructure the Bureau of Minerals Development and Geological Survey of Bangladesh and chalk measures to protect the environment and develop the legal frameworks for it.
The government will also have to chalk out a security measure for mines and a plan to reclaim land.
The draft recommends that the government decide on implementing an open pit mine as a "test case" in the northern part of the Barapukuria underground mine. If such a venture is "commercially successful", the government will review all technical aspects and take follow-up measures.
"There has been no study by any group about such an open pit mine in Barapukuria. How can this committee suggest this? Besides, who would invest for a test case if there is no guarantee of any profit?" asks another source.
"Again, technically you also need bigger land for an open pit mine. The Barapukuria mine area has a power plant and other structures. Then is this a feasible idea or just an undue idea?" the source quips.
The draft policy says till 2025 if Bangladesh's GDP remains as low as 5.5 percent, the country will need to add 19,000 megawatt additional power. On the other hand, if the GDP is as high as 8 percent, additional 41,000 MW power will be needed.
But at the same time, Petrobangla says production of gas, which has been the key source for power generation, will start to decline from 2011. This is where the country's coal should play a role.
It adds that to meet its power demands in a GDP growth rate scenario of 5.5 percent, Bangladesh will need 136 million tonnes of coal till 2025. If the GDP rate is 8 percent, then Bangladesh will need 450 million tonnes coal.
The draft says the country's existing four discovered coal fields of Barapukuria, Phulbari, Khalashpir and Dighipara can cater this need till 2030 or so.
The eighth draft coal policy that emphasises immediate government-led action in coal sector to meet the country's surging energy demand is likely to be placed before the caretaker government's cabinet today.
The draft proposes to set up a "mine Bangla" in line with Petrobangla by 2010 to spearhead different mining schemes. This government body will take strategic partners from private sector through open tenders for quick development of the schemes.
Other proposals include compulsory release of 20 percent shares of a mining venture to the local market as per the laws of the Securities Exchange Commission. When selling back, shareowners will be only able to sell those to the government at market price.
"Because of excessive revisions and inputs from a wide number of people, the draft policy now sounds more like a law than a policy," says a source. "And this was exactly the observation of the law ministry about the policy when the energy ministry sent the draft to the law ministry a few months back."
The draft policy tries to touch almost all aspects of coal development. "That is why the law ministry observed that instead of such a policy, the government should work on several laws instead of just one," the source adds.
The coal policy was first drafted in December 2005. The seventh draft was prepared by a committee to review the draft policy. Headed by former VC of Buet Prof Abdul Matin Patwari, the 10-member committee submitted its report to the energy ministry in December last year.
The ministry itself has also modified some of the contents. Only recently, the ministry has forwarded the draft to the Cabinet Division for approval by the cabinet.
Under this policy, private companies will not have sole ownership over any coal mining deal and must come as partners with a national coalmining company.
The draft restricts export of coal to be used as fuel, allowing exports of higher grade coking coal.
It lays out a detailed plan on how the government should handle rehabilitation and resettlement of communities that will be displaced by a mining project. The Patwari committee had suggested that the land acquired by a project be returned to the original owner upon completion of the project.
The land and the law ministries however deleted this part as it conflicts with the laws of the land. "Once the government acquires a piece of land, it can't be returned to the original owner. The government can however restore the land and allow its agricultural use," says a source.
The policy does not restrict open pit mining, as was initially demanded by some pressure groups. Instead, it identifies mining method as a technical issue, which should be decided on the basis of individual cases and technical viability.
The policy prioritises private partnership that puts highest emphasis on coal-fired power projects.
A 29-member committee led by the energy ministry will review coal sector master plan, royalty, the sector's development issues from time to time and give decisions.
By 2010, the government must frame a coal sector master plan, identify coal zones, review coal industry infrastructures and initiate restructuring measures.
It will also restructure the Bureau of Minerals Development and Geological Survey of Bangladesh and chalk measures to protect the environment and develop the legal frameworks for it.
The government will also have to chalk out a security measure for mines and a plan to reclaim land.
The draft recommends that the government decide on implementing an open pit mine as a "test case" in the northern part of the Barapukuria underground mine. If such a venture is "commercially successful", the government will review all technical aspects and take follow-up measures.
"There has been no study by any group about such an open pit mine in Barapukuria. How can this committee suggest this? Besides, who would invest for a test case if there is no guarantee of any profit?" asks another source.
"Again, technically you also need bigger land for an open pit mine. The Barapukuria mine area has a power plant and other structures. Then is this a feasible idea or just an undue idea?" the source quips.
The draft policy says till 2025 if Bangladesh's GDP remains as low as 5.5 percent, the country will need to add 19,000 megawatt additional power. On the other hand, if the GDP is as high as 8 percent, additional 41,000 MW power will be needed.
But at the same time, Petrobangla says production of gas, which has been the key source for power generation, will start to decline from 2011. This is where the country's coal should play a role.
It adds that to meet its power demands in a GDP growth rate scenario of 5.5 percent, Bangladesh will need 136 million tonnes of coal till 2025. If the GDP rate is 8 percent, then Bangladesh will need 450 million tonnes coal.
The draft says the country's existing four discovered coal fields of Barapukuria, Phulbari, Khalashpir and Dighipara can cater this need till 2030 or so.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Draft coal policy to be placed in cabinet soon
The Daily Star, July 14, 2008
The draft coal policy with options for open pit and underground mining is being sent this week to the cabinet division for the government approval.
“We've completed all necessary procedures. Now the draft will be sent to the cabinet division anytime this week for approval, Chief Adviser's Special Assistant for Power and Energy Ministry M Tamim told the news agency yesterday.
The inter-ministerial meeting discussing the draft policy had given the green signal to go ahead, he added.
The Buet professor-turn-caretaker government functionary said options for both open pit and underground mining methods were kept in the draft policy.
“Development method of any coal field will be determined on the basis of the coal conditions,” he said, adding that there is no provision for any pilot- or experiment-based project of open pit mining.
Full compensation, including rehabilitation of those affected by the mining, was provided in the draft policy. But they would not get the land back on completion of the mining as was proposed in the earlier draft policy.
“Land ministry has suggested that this is not a pragmatic provision as land returning process to the original owner may create a lot of complications after a long time of acquisition,” Dr Tamim added.
A high-level technical expert committee drafted the coal policy and placed it to the energy division in January this year.
Energy division reviewed the policy and took suggestions and opinions of other ministries concerned before finalising the draft.
In the absence of coal policy, the energy ministry's move for developing the country's coal fields remained stalled.
So far, six coal fields with a total reserves of 2.55 billion tonnes have been identified, mostly in the northern region.
Of those, Phulbari Coal Mine project, for which a UK-based company Asia Energy conducted a feasibility study and submitted an open pit mining development project remained staled for the government's approval.
Similarly, Tata Group of India also showed its interest and placed a proposal for development of Barapukuria Coal Mine project through open pit method. But the government is taking a decision for the policy.
The draft coal policy with options for open pit and underground mining is being sent this week to the cabinet division for the government approval.
“We've completed all necessary procedures. Now the draft will be sent to the cabinet division anytime this week for approval, Chief Adviser's Special Assistant for Power and Energy Ministry M Tamim told the news agency yesterday.
The inter-ministerial meeting discussing the draft policy had given the green signal to go ahead, he added.
The Buet professor-turn-caretaker government functionary said options for both open pit and underground mining methods were kept in the draft policy.
“Development method of any coal field will be determined on the basis of the coal conditions,” he said, adding that there is no provision for any pilot- or experiment-based project of open pit mining.
Full compensation, including rehabilitation of those affected by the mining, was provided in the draft policy. But they would not get the land back on completion of the mining as was proposed in the earlier draft policy.
“Land ministry has suggested that this is not a pragmatic provision as land returning process to the original owner may create a lot of complications after a long time of acquisition,” Dr Tamim added.
A high-level technical expert committee drafted the coal policy and placed it to the energy division in January this year.
Energy division reviewed the policy and took suggestions and opinions of other ministries concerned before finalising the draft.
In the absence of coal policy, the energy ministry's move for developing the country's coal fields remained stalled.
So far, six coal fields with a total reserves of 2.55 billion tonnes have been identified, mostly in the northern region.
Of those, Phulbari Coal Mine project, for which a UK-based company Asia Energy conducted a feasibility study and submitted an open pit mining development project remained staled for the government's approval.
Similarly, Tata Group of India also showed its interest and placed a proposal for development of Barapukuria Coal Mine project through open pit method. But the government is taking a decision for the policy.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Barclays sells shares in GCM Resources Plc
World Development Movement (WDM), July 7, 2008. London, UK
In June 2008 Barclays Bank sold its shares in GCM Resources Plc – a British company that is pushing through the building of a controversial mine in Bangladesh. A mine that, if built, will displace 40,000 people and threatened the water supply of a further 100,000. This move comes just two months after the Asian Development Bank removed financial banking from the controversial project, further placing the project in jeopardy.
WDM has spearheaded the UK campaign to stop the Phulbari mine project going ahead. Thousands of WDM supporters wrote to Barclays demanding that it sold its shares and WDM campaigners also attended Barclays AGM, demanding the same.
Tim Jones, policy officer at the World Development Movement said: “We are pleased to see that Barclays has sold its shares in GCM Resources Plc. And we now want Barclays, and other UK banks to remove all financial involvement in the project both now in and in the future. This is yet another blow for GCM and a victory for some of the poorest people in Bangladesh”.
WDM will continue to campaign to prevent the mine from being built more…
Take Action:www.wdm.org.uk/bangladeshmine
Kate Blagojevic
Press officer, World Development Movement
0207 820 4900/4913, 07711 875 345
Email:kate.blagojevic@wdm.org.uk
In June 2008 Barclays Bank sold its shares in GCM Resources Plc – a British company that is pushing through the building of a controversial mine in Bangladesh. A mine that, if built, will displace 40,000 people and threatened the water supply of a further 100,000. This move comes just two months after the Asian Development Bank removed financial banking from the controversial project, further placing the project in jeopardy.
WDM has spearheaded the UK campaign to stop the Phulbari mine project going ahead. Thousands of WDM supporters wrote to Barclays demanding that it sold its shares and WDM campaigners also attended Barclays AGM, demanding the same.
Tim Jones, policy officer at the World Development Movement said: “We are pleased to see that Barclays has sold its shares in GCM Resources Plc. And we now want Barclays, and other UK banks to remove all financial involvement in the project both now in and in the future. This is yet another blow for GCM and a victory for some of the poorest people in Bangladesh”.
WDM will continue to campaign to prevent the mine from being built more…
Take Action:www.wdm.org.uk/bangladeshmine
Kate Blagojevic
Press officer, World Development Movement
0207 820 4900/4913, 07711 875 345
Email:kate.blagojevic@wdm.org.uk
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