[Urbanstudy] Capitalist Punishment: How Tata Steel Killed A City

Sun Mar 8 13:09:28 CDT 2015

http://www.tehelka.com/capitalist-punishment-how-tata-steel-killed-a-city/2/

Capitalist Punishment: How Tata Steel Killed A City

*Despite litigation, Tata Steel has kept Jamshedpur deprived of basic civic
amenities by denying it the right to have an elected municipal body. Mathew
Samuel and Shalini Rai report*
MATHEW SAMUEL <http://tehelka.com/author/mathew-samuel>
SHALINI RAI <http://tehelka.com/author/shalini-rai>
2015-02-28 , Issue 9 Volume 12

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[image: Danger zone Many residents live in constant fear of waterborne
diseases]
<http://www.tehelka.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/tata_investigation2.jpg>

*Danger zone *Many residents live in constant fear of waterborne diseases,
Photo Courtesy: Manpreet Singh

Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> is a city of long,
uncomfortable silences. These silences are interspersed with sounds of
sirens from the Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel factory,
announcing the start and end of a workday. For the residents of Steel City,
everything, including their work, revolves around Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel. Ironically, the people of this
city are taciturn and scuttle attempts at conversation with a smile and
quietly walk away. Especially, if the attempted conversation is about Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel and how India’s largest
conglomerate has purloined Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>’s past, pillaged its natural
wealth and enslaved its populace in a vicious cycle of exploitation.

But first, let us meet Phagu Soren, among the lakhs of the poorest of the
poor, who are the original residents of Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>, but now exist on its fringes.
Soren lives near the banks of the Subarnarekha river in a rectangular
tenement with a mud floor, a roof made up of burlap sacks and plastic bags
and propped up by bamboo sticks. On a February afternoon, he sits gazing
silently at the river, whose name translates into ‘streak of gold’, with an
old shopping bag in one hand and an old cotton cap on his head.

Soren, who is in his mid-40s, but can easily be mistaken for a
septuagenarian, does not speak much. But his eyes — which have turned
rheumy already — tell a tale of exponential injustice and institutionalised
exploitation. If Soren could, he would tell me, you and everyone else who
cares to listen, how Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel, a
company with the self-proclaimed motto of ‘Values Stronger Than Steel’ took
away his livelihood, bled dry the natural resources of his town and dealt a
death blow to his way of living by poisoning the air of his ancestral home.
But Soren goes on living stoically, silently, resignedly. His options are
not just limited. They are non-existent.

Soren is forced to breathe the air that has been rendered highly toxic by
poisonous gases from Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>’s biggest
steel plant in India, forced to drink water unfit for human consumption
from the Subarnarekha and condemned to see the once verdant, bountiful
Dalma Hills, in the shadow of which generations of his family were born and
raised, turn into denuded mounds of bare earth and protruding rock.

Still, Soren does not speak. He only listens — to government officials, Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel executives, environmental
activists and anglicised journalists, who talk in rehearsed tones about
institutionalised corruption <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/corruption/>,
non-existent land rights, missing civic amenities, unending environmental
apathy and unacceptable corporate strong-arm tactics.

To get Soren to break his stoic silence would take ‘Values Stronger Than
Steel’. ButTata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel, the flagship firm
of the House of Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>, seems to live up
to these ‘values’ only in a superficial 3,000 crore ad campaign.

On ground, in Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> — a city
named after Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>,
the founder of the Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Group of
companies, with a market capitalisation, by conservative estimates, of 3.72
lakh crore — the ad campaign and Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>’s
longstanding synonymity with Indian industrialisation, ethical capitalism
and social philanthropy, appear to be a cruel joke played ceaselessly on
its long-suffering residents.

It also ridicules the premise on which former Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Group chairman Ratan Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>claimed to have modelled the Nano, the
so-called people’s car. Recalling his strong feeling of empathy at seeing a
family of four travelling on a two-wheeler during a heavy downpour, Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> had professed anguish at the incident
and thus was the Nano born, he had revealed.
[image: Watery grave Tata Steel has been guilty of dumping slag along the
riverbed of the Subarnarekha, Photo: Shalini Rai]

Watery grave Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel has been guilty
of dumping slag along the riverbed of the Subarnarekha, Photo: Shalini Rai
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/shalini-rai/>

PROTRACTED LITIGATION, STALLING TACTICS

By a cruel twist of fate, aided and abetted by cleverly drafted petitions
and strategic loopholes in legal formalities, Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> now has the dubious distinction of
being the only city in India whose residents do not have the right to
self-government. Consequently, Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> does not have a municipal body.
Though attempts at giving the factory town such a municipal body have been
going on since 1967, the Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Group has
managed to successfully stall this by means of protracted, “deliberately
misleading” litigation. In Steel City, the everyday civic requirements of
building and maintaining roads, sewerage, supply of water, street lighting
etc, are left to chance and to the goodwill of the Tatas.

The fundamental lacuna in the administration of Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> comes from a lease agreement that
appears to have been so drafted as to be deliberately ambiguous. Under the
agreement, the land occupied by Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel
constitutes less than half ofJamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>’s estimated area of 37,000 acres.
However, Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> is required to provide
civic amenities to “the inhabitants of Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>”.

According to Census 2011 data, Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> city is the third largest in
eastern India after Kolkata and Patna, with a population of more than 13
lakh and is governed by the Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> Notified Area Committee (JNAC).
Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> is an Urban
Agglomeration (UA) under the Million Plus UA/City category. Made up of the
urban settlements of Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> (under
the Notified Area Committee) with a population of more than 6 lakh; Mango
(under the Notified Area Committee), with a population above 2 lakh; and
the Nagar Panchayat of Adityapur, with a population above 1.7 lakh, it is a
factory town placed as nobody’s responsibility.

Today, only the residents of the ‘inner circle’, the elite neighbourhood of
Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>’s Telco Colony and its
vicinity, can claim to have access to civic amenities. This is a virtual
idyll — with whitewashed bungalows, manicured gardens, pristine parks, a
lake with clear waters and upscale boulevards.

At the far end of the civic spectrum lies the ‘other Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>’ — where the majority resides in
shanty towns, in brick houses awaiting a coat of plaster, amid overflowing,
clogged drains, non-existent roads and air pollution that is far above
‘harmful’ levels. This Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> lives
in the Brobdingnagian shadow of the Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>Steel
factory, that behemoth spewing multicoloured smoke — white, black and red —
from hazy morning to starless night, with mechanical regularity, blotting
out everything else.

This side of town lives in constant fear of waterborne diseases and an
overwhelming number of its residents suffer from respiratory ailments. They
bear the daily ignominy of crossing stinking mounds of garbage on the way
to their children’s schools (at least half-a-dozen) built in close
proximity to the Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel plant. There
are no civic amenities available to its more than 12 lakh people. This part
of Steel City seems to have steeled itself to face a life of civic abuse
and institutional ennui.
------------------------------

FROM INCEPTION TO IMPLOSION

• 1922 The Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act comes into effect

• 1924 Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> is declared a
notified area vide Notification No. 5960

• 1967 The Bihar government issues a proposal to convert the Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> Notified Area Committee (jnac)
into a municipality

• 1973 The municipality proposal is dropped

• 1984 After a lease agreement between Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel and the Bihar government, the
former takes the responsibility for providing municipal services in
Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>

• 1998 Jawaharlal Sharma files Writ Petition (Civil) No. 154/88, seeking
conversion of the jnac into a municipality

• 1989 The Supreme Court directs the state government to issue a
notification under Section 390A of the Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act,
declaring its intention to convert Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> into a municipality within eight
weeks

• 1990 The state government issues a notification under Section 390A to
constitute a municipality in Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> ® 1991 tisco challenges the
notification by way of a writ petition in the Patna High Court;
notification stayed

• 1992 A fresh jnac is constituted ® 1992 The hc vacates the stay order

• 1993 74th Constitutional Amendment introduced; Article 243Q provides for
a municipality/industrial township

• 1994 In compliance with the 74th Amendment, the Bihar government
promulgates an ordinance and amends the Bihar Municipal Act

• 1998 Notification issued to dissolve the JNAC

• 1998 Notification challenged by way of a writ petition in the hc

• 2000 The hc disposes off the writ petition and directs the state to issue
an appropriate notification

• 2000 Bihar Reorganisation Act promulgated; Jharkhand state constituted

• 2003 Sharma files a writ petition praying for the state to replace the
jnac with a duly elected municipal body

• 2005 The hc issues a direction to conduct municipal polls

• 2005 Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel lease renewed; Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> empowered to levy charges for municipal
services, contrary to Part IX of the Constitution

• 2005 The state government issues a notification expressing its intention
to declare Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> a
municipality

• 2005 The notification is published in the official gazette

• 2006 The hc disposes off a writ petition and remits the matter back to
the government

• 2006 Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel files Special Leave
Petition No. 14926/06 challenging the hc judgment and order dated 23 June
2000 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 517/06 ® 2006 The SC issues a notice

• 2008 The sc grants leave; asks status quo to be maintained

• 2008 Sharma files an application for impleadment (IA No. 3) in ca No.
467/08 before the sc and the same is allowed vide order dated 1 May 2008;
the SC directs that the petition be put up for hearing and order in October
2008. The matter is still pending before the apex court
------------------------------

How did things come to such a pass in Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>? And why does the rest of the
country not raise an outcry about this glaring disregard for civic
responsibility byTata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel, bound as it
is by law, through constitutional obligations and by means of corporate
social responsibility clauses? To answer this, one has to go back more than
a century, to examine the groundwork on which the teetering edifice of Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>Steel stands.
[image: tata_investigation6]
<http://www.tehelka.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/tata_investigation6.jpg>

*Marginalised* Ho tribals, the original inhabitants, have been deprived of
their livelihood, Photo: Shalini Rai
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/shalini-rai/>

A CHEQUERED HISTORY , A CONVENIENT LEASE AGREMENT

The Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel plant was established in
Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> in 1907. On 21 June
1924,Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> was declared a
Notified Area vide Notification No. 5960. On 21 August 1989, hearing Writ
Petition (Civil) No. 154 of 1988, filed by a local resident named
Jawaharlal Sharma, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Sabyasachi
Mukherji, S Ranganathan and Kuldip Singh, ruled, “It has been brought to
our notice that in 1967, the Government of Bihar under Section 390A of the
Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act, 1922, had declared its intention to convert
the notified area of Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> into
a municipality… After considering the representations and facts and
circumstances of the matter, the idea of converting Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> into a municipality was dropped in
1973… We are of the opinion that the government should consider the matter
(a)fresh in the light of the facts and submissions and the points raised in
the petition. We accordingly direct the government to issue (a)
notification declaring its intent to convert Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> into a municipality under Section
390A of the said Act within a period of eight weeks from this date.”

On 23 November 1990, a notification was issued under Section 390A of the
Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act, 1922, to constitute a municipality in
Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>. However, on 11 January
1991, TISCO (Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Iron and Steel Company
Limited, now renamed Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel)
challenged the notification by way of a writ petition in the Patna High
Court, after which the court stayed the notification. A new Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>Notified Area Committee (JNAC) was
constituted on 11 March 1992 and the court vacated the stay order on 25
November 1992.

When the 74th Constitutional Amendment was introduced on 1 June 1993,
Article 243Q provided for the setting up of a municipality/industrial
township.

Here, too, the ubiquitous influence of the House of Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> was at work. Saryu Roy, former BJP
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/bjp/> MP from Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> West, explains how. “Most reliable
sources at (the) highest (levels) in the urban development department,
Government of India, once confided (to me) that the Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel management owes much to (the)
introduction of a new entity in the name of ‘industrial township’ in
Article 243Q of the Constitution,” he says on his website. “(This) may be
or may not be (true) butTata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel’s
opposition to the municipal corporation in Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> is well known.”

In compliance with the 74th Constitutional Amendment, the Government of
Bihar amended the Bihar Municipal Act on 30 May 1994 and introduced the
provision of “industrial township… as and where required” as per the
constitutional amendment.

Roy explains how the provision remained only indicative and could not be
made exhaustive by framing specific rules for its implementation in
practice. “It (the provision) says, ‘There shall be constituted (a)
municipal corporation for a larger urban area; provided that a municipality
under this clause may not be constituted in such urban area or part thereof
as the governor may, having regard to the size of the area and municipal
services being provided or proposed to be provided by an industrial
establishment in that area and such other factors as he may deem fit, by
public notification, specify to be an industrial township’.”

On 8 September 1998, another notification was issued and the JNAC , which
was constituted in 1992, was dissolved. The 1998 notification was
challenged on 28 April 2000, with a writ petition filed in the Patna High
Court, which was disposed off with a direction to the state government to
issue an ‘appropriate’ notification.

On 15 November 2000, the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000, was promulgated
and the state of Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar. Yet, the residents of
Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>continued to be treated
as nobody’s wards. In 2003, Sharma filed another writ petition praying that
the state replace the JNAC with a duly elected municipal body. In May 2005,
the high court directed the state government to conduct municipal
elections. In August 2005, when the Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel
lease was renewed for another 20 years, the company was empowered to levy
charges for municipal services provided. This was contrary to Part IX (The
Municipalities) of the Constitution of India.

In this century-long saga of litigation, December 2005 saw the state
government issuing a notification expressing its intention to declare
Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> a municipality. On 8
December 2005, this notification was published in the official gazette. In
June 2006, the Jharkhand High Court disposed off the writ petition and
remitted the matter back to the state government.

However, expectedly, on 10 August 2006, Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel filed a Special Leave Petition No.
14926/06, challenging the judgment and order dated 23 June 2000 in Writ
Petition (Civil) No. 517/06. In response, the Supreme Court issued notices
on 25 September 2006 and 9 January 2008, granting leave and ruled that
status quo shall be maintained (in Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>).

JAMSHEDPUR URBAN REGION

• A s per Census 2011, Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> is
an urban agglomeration coming under the category of Million Plus UA /City.
Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> city is governed by a
Notified Area Committee and is situated in the Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> Urban Region

• A s of 2011, the population of Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> UA /Metropolitan region is
1,337,131. The male population is 696,858, while the female population is
640,273

• The cities that fall under the Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> UA are Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> and Mango (Notified Area
Committee) and Adityapur (Nagar Panchayat). The towns included are Bagbera,
Chhota Gobindpur, Chota Gamahria, Gadhra, Ghorabandha, Haludbani, Jugsalai
Municipality, Purihasa, Sarjamda and Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Nagar
Railway Colony.
------------------------------

Tirelessly working for the cause of setting up a municipality in Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>, Sharma filed an application for
impleadment (ia No. 3) in ca No. 467/08 before the Supreme Court on 1 May
2008; the same was allowed vide the order dated 1 May 2008. The apex court
then directed that the petition be put up for hearing and order in October
2008. However, six years later, the matter is still pending before the
Supreme Court, and the people of Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> wait, like they always have.

“This is one of the longest-running instances of litigation in Jharkhand,”
says Sharma, 72. “We started this battle for the civic rights of Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> in 1988, by filing a writ petition
in the Supreme Court seeking conversion of the JNAC into a municipality.
This year, it will be 27 years since we began the never-ending litigation.
The actions of Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel are tantamount
to criminality and include violation of constitutional provisions with
regard to the functioning of municipal bodies.”

Under its lease agreement, renewed in 2005 for a period of 30 years, with
retrospective effect from 1996, Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel
is bound by law to provide “civic services like conservancy, building and
maintaining roads, sewerage etc, supply of water and maintaining water
mains, pipes etc, street lighting and supplying electrical energy and
similar amenities and various other civic amenities for the inhabitants of
the town of Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>”.
[image: Dark days Studies show that the ambient air quality in the city has
deteriorated, Photo: Shalini Rai]
<http://www.tehelka.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/tata_investigation54.jpg>

*Dark days* Studies show that the ambient air quality in the city has
deteriorated, Photo: Shalini Rai <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/shalini-rai/>

However, even a cursory look around reveals that the Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> Utilities and Services Company
(JUSCO) provides civic amenities only in name (JUSCO was carved out of Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel in 2004 from its Town Services
Division). Instead of penalising Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel
for its “delaying litigation” tactics, the steel behemoth, through JUSCO,
was empowered to levy charges for municipal services provided toJamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> residents.

“What services does jusco provide? We are condemned to live in a ‘backward’
area, even by the standards of Jharkhand. There are no civic amenities
here; everything is done by locals on their own initiative,” a shopkeeper
says on the condition of anonymity.

Despite repeated attempts by Tehelka to contact Ashish Mathur, managing
director, JUSCO, over phone and by email, and by personal request to
Sukanya Das, manager, corporate communications, JUSCO, there has been no
response from either at the time of going to press.

HOW TO KILL RIVERS AND CHOKE A CITY

The oft-brandished argument by Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel
of having provided jobs to the people of Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> is typically fallacious and
inaccurate. For starters, the mostly tribal population of this area,
dominated by the Ho tribe, was engaged in subsistence agriculture. They had
no need or requirement for a polluting steel plant of industrial
proportions to first be set up on their ancestral land and then,
systematically take away their traditional means of livelihood and deprive
them of first right over their natural resources. A case in point is the
deliberate cutting down of the Kusum trees in the early years of the 20th
century, attributed to Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>Steel. These
trees were a direct source of livelihood for the Ho tribals.

“My mother told me that we used to extract a lot of lac from Kusum trees at
the time. The money she would make from selling it in the market was
sufficient for many of our needs,” says Reesa Birua, 40, a Ho tribal. “Then
company (Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>) officials began to chop
down Kusum trees. My mother would say that she was left with no option but
to go out and work.”

Pointing his fingers at Dalma Hills, Bildigram pradhan (headman) Haradam
Sirka says, “Do you see those hills in the distance? Those hills are sacred
to us. There were only these mountains and these rivers (Subarnarekha and
Kharkai) and our forests, earlier. Now, we don’t even have clean water to
drink because Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> dumps its slag into
these rivers. There is always some road-building activity going on, leaving
our homes covered in dust. We cannot sleep at night because they dump
garbage here.”

As a gust of wind brings in its wake a terrible stench from the nearby
open-air municipal garbage dump, Sirka adds, “This is not the home we
remember. This is only Tatanagar… this is Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>.”

Today, the Subarnarekha and Kharkai rivers, which encircle Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>, are repositories of industrial
effluents, in particular, slag. Choked of oxygen and filled with algae-like
growth, they are a sad sight, their plight a direct result of
irresponsible, criminal dumping of slag, a glass-like byproduct of iron-ore
processing, by Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel.

In August 2011, the Jharkhand High Court had directed the East Singhbhum
deputy commissioner to probe the alleged dumping of slag by Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel in Kharkai and Subarnarekha
rivers. A division bench comprising Chief Justice (acting) Prakash Tatia
and Justice HC Mishra gave the ruling while hearing a public interest
litigation on the encroachment of water bodies filed by Saryu Roy. Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel, while accepting that slag was
being dumped, said it was done in public interest.

“Slag, dumped along the banks of the two rivers until 2003, helped in
checking frequent flash floods,” said an affidavit filed by the steel
company. The bench, apparently not convinced by the affidavit, said it
seemed to be “cleverly drafted” and observed that the company accepted that
slag had been dumped on river beds, but took refuge in saying it was done
in public interest.

The condition of the air above Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> is hardly better. A survey
conducted by the regional office of the Jharkhand State Pollution Control
Board (JSPCB) in November-December 2014 has indicated a depreciation in the
city’s ambient air quality due to an unabated increase in the number of
smoke-belching vehicles.

In the localities of Bistupur, Sakchi and Golmuri, three major air
pollutants — sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and respirable suspended
particulate matter (RSPM) — have crossed their permissible limits.

The JSPCB survey shows that the RSPM level in the three localities has gone
way beyond the 100 mg/m3 (milligram per cubic metre) mark, prescribed by
the Central Pollution Control Board. At the jspcb’s monitoring station in
Bistupur, the rspm level was 145.92
------------------------------

HOW THEY DESTROYED A CITY

Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>’s air and water have
turned unfit for consumption due to the direct actions of Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel

POISON IN THE AIR

A recent survey by the regional office of the Jharkhand State Pollution
Control Board (JSP) has indicated depreciation in the ambient air quality
in Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>. According to the
survey, which is being carried out on a monthly basis, the respirable
suspended particulate matter (RSPM) in the localities of Bistupur, Golmuri
and Sakchi has gone way beyond the 100 mg/m3 (milligram per cubic metre)
mark, prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

At the JSPCB monitoring station in Bistupur, the RSPM level was 145.92
mg/m3 in November and 146 mg/m3 in December. Golmuri, on the other hand,
recorded 145.78 mg/ m3 in November and 146.25 mg/m3 in December. Sakchi
registered 106 mg/m3 in November and 107 mg/m3 in December.

The NO2 levels in ambient air in Bistupur, Golmuri and Sakchi were found to
be 48.25 mg/m3, 49.49 mg/m3 and 45.26 mg/m3, respectively. The CPCB
prescribed cap for oxides of nitrogen is 40 mg/m3. Similarly, SO2 levels in
the three localities were 37.72 mg/m3, 37.71 mg/m3 and 36.41 mg/ m3,
respectively, while the permissible limit is 35 mg/m3.

RIVERS TURN INTO SEWERS

In August 2011, the Jharkhand High Court had directed the East Singhbhum
deputy commissioner to probe into the alleged dumping of slag by Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel in Kharkai and Subarnarekha
rivers. A division bench comprising Chief Justice (acting) Prakash Tatia
and Justice HC Mishra gave the ruling while hearing a public interest
litigation on the encroachment of water bodies filed by former BJP
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/bjp/> legislator Saryu Roy. Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel, while accepting that slag was
being dumped, said it was “done in public interest”.

An affidavit filed by the company said slag, dumped along the banks of the
two rivers until 2003, helped in checking frequent flash floods. Not
convinced by the affidavit, the bench said it seemed to have been “cleverly
drafted”. It observed that the company accepted that slag had been dumped
on the riverbeds, but it had taken refuge in saying it was in public
interest.

Under its 2012 Green Rating Program Studies, the Centre for Science and
Environment assessed Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel’s
performance with regard to its Environmental Impact and Natural Resources
Consumption on ‘8-leaf’ international standards. Shockingly, it qualified
for only two leafs — 25- 35 percent compliance with international green
standards. FOGM/ m3 in November and 146 mg/m3 in December. Golmuri recorded
145.78 mg/m3 in November and 146.25 mg/ m3 in December. Sakchi registered
106 mg/m3 in November and 107 mg/m3 in December.
------------------------------

A Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>-based general
physician said that rising RSPM levels have both short- and long-term
consequences. “Initially, people experience difficulty while breathing;
then they suffer from persistent cough and lung infection,” he said on the
condition of anonymity. “Later on, there may be a spurt in asthma cases. In
more acute situations, air contaminants can cause cancer and irreversible
lung and heart diseases. Higher SO2 and NO2 cause eye irritation.”
[image: Steely resolve Tata Steel has tried every trick to thwart the
setting up of a municipality, Photo: Shalini Rai]

*Steely resolve* Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel has tried
every trick to thwart the setting up of a municipality, Photo: Shalini Rai
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/shalini-rai/>

THE UNHOLY TRINITY OF IRONY, APATHY AND IMPUNITY

Essentially, the reality of Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> is a stark reflection of the
nation’s corporate culture. Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> exemplifies the apathy of
corporate functioning in India and the impunity with which industrial
houses can break laws and keep evading justice, all the while pursuing an
insidious policy of punishment through rewards and lauding legal and
constitutional contravention through private recompense. The two instances
below are characteristic and shocking in their brazenness.

The 17 January 1991 edition of the Amrita Bazar Patrika contains a single-
column article headlined Russi Mody’s challenge to Laloo Govt. A staff
reporter writes, “Mr Russi Mody, chairman and MD, Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel, challenged the state government
to set up a municipality in Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>. Ridiculing the frequent changes
of power… he said in broken Hindi, ‘Yeh government to kya, is government ka
baap bhi municipality nahin bana sakti hai (Not just this government, but
even their overlords cannot form a municipality here)’ amid loud cheers. Mr
Mody was addressing a gathering of anti-municipality activists at the
children’s park opposite his residence. Mr Mody also mocked the judiciary,
saying he would contest the municipality case in courts for at least 40
years. It may be recalled that TISCO has already obtained a stay order on
the municipality from the Patna HC.”

After this stay order, the International Public Relations Organisation
awarded TISCO the Golden Globe for running a comprehensive and effective pr
campaign against the setting up of a municipality in Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>.

After a week-long effort, in which Tehelka’s questionnaire was directed
from pillar to post (beginning from the jusco management and finally
reaching the top rungs of the corporate communications wing, Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Group) Kulvin Suri, chief, corporate
communications, India and Southeast Asia, Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel, wrote back. He repeated the same
answers and made the same assertions that Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel has been making all along,
effectively denying any culpability for the shocking state of air and water
in Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>. Suri went on to say
that slag dumping has been done “in public interest for flood protection
and to decongest the city”.
------------------------------

TATA’S IRONY AND STEAL COMPANY

Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel is among the top 10 steel
manufacturers in the world with a market capitalisation of 3.72 lakh crore
by conservative estimates. It operates in more than 20 countries and has a
commercial presence in over 50 countries. Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel is headquartered at Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> in Jharkhand. The company was
established inJamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> in 1907.
In the past few years, Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel has
invested in Corus (UK, renamed Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel
Europe), Millennium Steel (renamed Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel
Thailand) and NatSteel Holdings (Singapore). With these, the company has
created a manufacturing and marketing network in Europe, Southeast Asia and
the Pacific-rim countries. It has the capacity to produce more than 30
million tonnes of crude steel every year. The company produces crude steel
and basic steel products, and makes steel for building and construction
applications through Tata <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> BlueScope
Steel, its joint venture with Australia’s BlueScope Steel. Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel has also set up joint ventures for
the development of limestone mines in Thailand, procurement of low-ash coal
from Australia and coking coal from Mozambique, and the setting up of a
deep-sea port in Odisha. The company is exploring opportunities in the
titanium dioxide business in Tamil Nadu, and will soon be producing high
carbon ferrochrome from its plant in South Africa. Despite having a global
footprint, the company has failed to provide basic civic amenities to the
residents of the city where it is headquartered and where it has been a
larger-than-life presence for more than a century now.
------------------------------

Here is the detailed official response from Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel. “In (the) early 1990s, till 2003,
slag dumping was done in public interest along the river bank for flood
protection works and as an effort to decongest the city by constructing a
road (marine drive). This slag dumping along the river has provided some
incidental benefits as well as flood protection of some low-lying areas and
roads along the river. We can and do control what we emit and discharge.
However, there is a mushrooming of industrial activity in the city and its
surroundings. While we do our best to collaborate with relevant agencies on
these aspects, given the above narration, the controls and restraints with
regard to pollution control also needs to come from all stakeholders in
their respective areas of activity and not Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>Steel alone. The fact is that the water
in Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> taps runs so clean
that it exceeds standards set by the who and the Bureau of Indian
Standards. In addition, JUSCO also provides electricity to locals with an
availability factor of over 99 percent. At present, there are two Sewage
Treatment Plants within the lease hold area, which are fully functional, to
treat sewage generated from the township as well as from steel works and
(these) are complying with norms. The company caters to urban and
industrial infrastructure like roads, bridges, residential and commercial
complexes, recreational facilities and civil and structural construction.
JUSCO’s green focus has led to intelligent illumination and energysaving
devices for streetlights. It has planted trees of various local species
making Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> one of the
greenest cities in India. On top of that, the company has invested in a
24/7 helpline service as a part of its customer management system — called
Jusco Sahyog Kendra — that allows customers to log and track complaints. It
may not be out of place to mention that as a corporate,Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel has been recognised as a
responsible corporate for its corporate citizenship and sustainability
practices.”

Well-known American philosopher and political commentator Noam Chomsky was
once asked what he made of the term “corporate welfare”. In the context of
Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/> and Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel, Chomsky’s reply resonates halfway
across the world. Chomsky had said, “How is a corporation different from a
partnership? We form a partnership, the government doesn’t have anything to
do with it. A corporation is based on limited liability. That means that if
you and I form a corporation, and some crime
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/crime/> is committed, we have limited
liability. That means that corporate manslaughter, which is a huge
phenomenon, doesn’t get treated like manslaughter. In fact, it rarely gets
treated at all. Yes, it’s their business. What else should they do? It’s
like when people talk about greedy capitalists, that’s redundant. You have
to be a greedy capitalist or you are out of business. In fact, it’s a legal
requirement that you be a greedy capitalist and that you don’t pay
attention to what happens to anyone else. You know, it’s not just Ayn Rand,
that’s the law. So, these complaints don’t make any sense.”

But in Jamshedpur <http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>, these
complaints do make sense. Because here lives Phagu Soren, one of its
original residents, now violently deprived of their rights by capitalist
manoeuvring and manipulation. Although he may not know Chomsky and may
never make sense of his pronouncements, a place such as Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>, the virtual fiefdom of Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/> Steel, has microcosmic reverberations
for India and for the comprehensive sellout of its resources to capitalist
conglomerates, which is now nearing completion. For Soren, there may be
safety and solace in silence. But for our own sake, if not for his, let us
hope one day he will tell his story and speak the truth about Tata
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/tata/>.

With inputs from Manpreet Singh, Jamshedpur
<http://www.tehelka.com/tag/jamshedpur/>

letters at tehelka.com
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