Parliament bypassed to steal rare atomic minerals
Babus help corporates export banned items, India loses priceless wealth forever
Kumar Chellappan, Chennai
A massive fraud has been perpetrated on Parliament and the people of India by a coterie of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen.The Department of Atomic Energy, the apex body controlling India’s nuclear power sector, blatantly flouted all rules governing civil society and established norms by stealthily throwing open the country’s precious mineral resources to corporate sharks for exploitation. This was done without getting the approval of Parliament.
The Pioneer has been publishing reports on how rare minerals along the Indian coastline were being looted by vested interests with the connivance of powers that be. Rare minerals like Ilmenite, Rutile, Leucoxene and Zircon, which command hefty premium in the international market, were being exported by certain corporate firms without paying a single rupee as royalty to the Government (read people of this country). How did the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) facilitate the exporting of these minerals by private operators though it has a state-of-the-art conglomerate by the name Indian Rare Earth Ltd with units spread across the country?
On January 18, 2006, the DAE vide a notification which was gazetted on January 20, 2006, revised the list of Prescribed Substances, Prescribed Equipment and Technology. Ilmenite, Rutile, Leucoxene and Zircon, which were Prescribed Substances under the Atomic Energy Act till then, were delisted and put into open general category. The order issued by VP Raja, the then additional secretary, DAE said : “This change will become effective only after suitable amendments are carried out to the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act and passed by Parliament.”
Though the order was issued by Raja on January 20, 2006, Parliament is yet to be told about the amendment which had to be made so that the private operators could swindle the natural resources with public approval. Swapnesh Kumar Malhotra, the DAE spokesman, told The Pioneer that there was no need for the DAE to get approval of Parliament. “We can bypass Parliament on certain issues and hence there is no need for us to introduce the Bill and get it passed in the House,” said Malhotra. But he feigned ignorance when he was reminded on the condition set by Raja in his order dated January 20, 2006. To suppress the curiosity of this newspaper, Malhotra sent a copy of the Special Gazette of India dated January 20, 2006 which has reproduced the notification by Raja but without the precondition that Parliament has to approve the amendment.
RK Sharma, secretary general, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, who keeps track of even the most obscure legislations and Government orders related to minerals, sands and other natural resources, said no such Bill had been introduced in Parliament. There are companies in Tamil Nadu which have been making billions by exporting the Prescribed Substances since 1988!
Subash Kashyap, the soft spoken former secretary general of the Lok Sabha described the action of the DAE as improper and unreasonable. “It is an impropriety and unreasonable. That’s all I can say,” said Kashyap.
S Kalyanaraman, former IRAS bureaucrat and a former Asian Development Bank, had termed the DAE act as blatant violation of the privilege of Parliament. “The notification could be made effective only after the Act No 67 of 1957 was amended by Parliament. Issuing a notification without mentioning this fundamental condition effectively constitutes a breach of privilege of Parliament. The illegal notification should be withdrawn, all actions taken under the notification declared null and void. The Union Government should order a Commission of Inquiry to prosecute the criminal act of issuing an illegal notification and also to inquire into illegal mining atomic minerals consequent to the illegal notification,” he said.
V Sundaram, a 1965 batch IAS officer from Tamil Nadu who threw up his job in disgust to protest against massive corruption in Government, termed the DAE act as illegal and sacrilegious. “How can you issue notifications and gazette them without first ensuring the prior approval of Parliament to the proposed changes in the list of the Prescribed Substances declared as Atomic Minerals under the Act 67 of 1957?” he asked in a letter addressed to the chairman of DAE. .
“How can anyone issue a Notification and make it appear legal by making it subject to approval of Amendment by Parliament? It is height of irresponsibility to assume Amendment by Parliament. It is unheard of in the annals of gazetting notifications that a notification gets issued without the authority of an enactment by Parliament. This notification of Jan 2006 is patently illegal and actions flowing from the operations of an illegal notification are ipso facto illegal and do not have the force of the rule of law,” said Sundaram who described the action of DAE as a scam of all scams.
He said if every department in the vast machinery of the Government of India proceeds on this cavalier assumption and presumption, the country would have nothing but uncontrolled anarchy and confusion.
On November 30, 2011, V Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Prime Minister’s Office, told the Lok Sabha in reply to a question: “As per the latest notification of Department of Atomic Energy vide ref. S.O.61(E) dated January 20, 2006, these heavy minerals are delisted from the Prescribed Substances list and hence for the handling of these minerals licence from Department of Atomic Energy under the Atomic Energy (Working of the Mines, Minerals and Handling of Prescribed Substance) Rules, 1984 is not required,” said the Minister. He also said that consequent to de-listing of ilmenite, Rutile, Zircon etc. from the list of Prescribed Substances, no licences or permission are required from DAE for these substances.
But what he left unsaid was the amendment and notification had to be ratified by Parliament. What has happened is that the representatives of the people were kept in the dark about the swindling of the rare minerals along the country’s coastline. Had a Bill been introduced in Parliament, at least some members would have questioned the propriety of such an amendment.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/home/online-channel/360-todays-newspaper/114535-parliament-bypassed-to-steal-rare-atomic-minerals.html
Relate links: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/12/thorium-has-risks-but-has-great.html
