While it has been announced that this has now been raised to 15 per cent of the market price, it is learned that in reality this has been raised just tenfold to Rs 270 per tonne. It now needs to be mandated by law that for minerals extracted in tribal areas the royalty received should be entirely earmarked to the local administration. It is the subject of many a folk song. The Fifth Schedule provides for the administration and control of tribal lands (termed “scheduled areas”) within nine states of India. The Fifth Schedule provides protection to the adivasi (tribal) people living in the scheduled areas from alienation of their lands and natural resources to non-tribals. The lament of the adivasi about their role in their government is well known. The locals get nothing but the most menial jobs and in return their hitherto pristine environment is ravaged beyond recognition with the streams choked with the debris of excavation. Unfortunately, it was later merged into the IAS. Till recently, the royalty paid by the extractors was a meager Rs 27 per metric tonne.
The irony is that it is this low cost of iron ore extracted from its adivasi homeland mines that provides companies like Tata Steel the financial muscle to make huge overseas acquisitions. The implications of this price difference should be obvious. The governors can intervene in areas relating to prohibition or restriction of the transfer of land by or among Scheduled Tribe members; regulation of allotment of land in such areas; and the regulation of money-lending activities. The IFAS was an eclectic group of officers drawn from various arms of the government. Clearly, this kind of exploitation of tribal homelands and loot of the state has got to stop. The Central and state governments are unable to fashion a policy response to this besides terming it as Naxalite-inspired and hence requiring a “shoot and kill” solution. All laws passed by the state legislatures must be ratified to the satisfaction of the Mahapanchayat. Ultimately, it is the poor adivasi who pays for it with his home and hearth and gets no credit for it!But the real problem is that this relatively small amount of over Rs 4,600 crores because of the enhanced royalty will accrue to the state government’s coffers and like before little will filter down. Clearly, seven decades is long enough to give the provisions of the Constitution life. The export price has never fallen below Rs 1,500 per tonne and has been as high as Rs 6,800 per tonne.