Aheli Moitra
Churachandpur | November 23
In what is turning out to be a boxing match, another public hearing was conducted for oil exploration in Manipur; the proposition beaten blue by the local people once again. This time at Shibapurikhal (Ankhasuo village) in the Tipaimukh sub-division of Churachandpur district, Manipur.
On November 21, the Manipur Pollution Control Board (MPCB), along with Jubilant Oil and Gas Pvt. Ltd. (JOGPL or Jubilant Energy), held a fifth round of public hearing, in the Hmar area, in order to clear the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the proposed oil exploration in one of the two blocks located in Churachandpur district. 17 drilling sites have been proposed here.
The hearing panel consisted of Jagadishwor Singh, MPCB Member Secretary, Tejinder Pal Singh, Asset Manager Manipur JOGPL, W. Yaiskhul Sing and H. D. Gangte, Divisional Forest Officers Jiribam, and T. Mangi Singh, Environmental Engineer MPCB.
It was chaired by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Churachandpur district, Jacintha Lazarus. Out of the 35 villages of the Vangai Range that will be affected by the exploration, only 14 (people) attended the hearing. The only two leaders among them made their dissent to any exploratory activity on their land known.
Misinformation seemed to be the theme of the hearing as people remained ill informed of not just the exploration but also the time at which the hearing was slated for. The Manipur Police, Manipur IRB, Manipur Rifles and Assam Rifles overlooked the procedure in ample numbers. Protest banners reading ‘Stop Oil Exploration in Tipaimukh Area’ by the local Joint Action Committee, at the entrance to the village, was removed by one Major Parichoy of the 22 Assam Rifles, who was later seen mingling easily with representatives of Jubilant Energy.
At 1pm, the hearing began at the village community hall with a presentation from JOGPL on what exploration means, the environment safety procedures to be applied and the benefits of oil and gas to local communities. Issues the project will face in terms of logistics or royalty sharing, a memorandum for which has already been signed with the Government of Manipur with no mention of a peoples’ share, remained conspicuously absent from the presentation.
In order to carry out the exploratory activities, the government administration has set procedures where the company will need prior permissions from the village authority to start work on their land. A political assessment, however, has not been done by JOGPL as clearance in such cases is required only from the Ministry of Environment and Forest.
Immediately after the presentation, L. Enga, Chairman of the All Vangai Area Chief and Village Authority Association addressed the panel in Hmar, in objection, “our people were not consulted for the said exploration and it is unclear how local people will benefit from it.” Jubilant claims that it will employ a local workforce at its site but with limited access to education, it is feared that the locals will remain at the level of casual temporary labour.
Village chief of Ankhasuo, Huoplien, asked why such few representatives had shown up for the hearing, and that the land belongs to the people; “we will decide the future of our land”.
Activists and media personnel, also present at the hearing, were barred from asking questions by the MPCB at first but with insistence and the DC’s intervention, questions were taken. They pointed out that the global tender for the exploration were floated in 2003 and 2009, and memorandums between Government of India, Government of Manipur and JOGPL signed in 2010, whereas people to whom the land belongs are being consulted only this year.
“We are consulting the Autonomous District Council and the Manipur Hill Area Committee to discuss production sharing,” said DC Lazarus. Though she said “indigenous peoples’ rights should not be violated”, Member Secretary of MPCB, Jagadishwor Singh said that “several formalities” had to be taken care of before the people could be approached.
The Production Sharing Contract gives 12.5% oil and 10% gas to the Government of Manipur but makes no mention of the local people whose lands will be given up for the exploration. That apart, the activists wondered why reports from independent experts on environment were not taken knowing that the proposed area falls under a sensitive seismic zone. And that in a heavy rainfall area like this, the chance of water pollution from the drilling site remains high.
JOGPL, represented by managers who are mostly Indian army retirees, maintained that their drilling will leave a “low footprint”.
Questions on who will be responsible in the event of an environmental or human disaster resulting from the exploration were not responded to accurately, JOGPL only stating that it will do its best to avert any such disaster. When asked if the ONGC oil spill in Wokha was anything to go by, Jubilant’s Lokendra Singh and Tejinder Pal Singh told this newspaper that it was not ONGC’s fault that the oil wells were not allowed to be plugged before it left the site.
This fitted well with activist Jishnu Dutta’s deliberation to the panel that if state-owned ONGC did not feel accountable, why would a profit based non-state company?
“All the five public hearings have been objected to by the people. Jubilant should not continue work in such a scenario, pack up and leave,” said Pamei Tingenlung, Convenor of Committee on Protection of Natural Resources in Manipur. Previous hearings were conducted in Jiribam (July 30), Parbung (August 8), Nungba (August 17) and Tamenglong district headquarters (November 7), all of which faced stiff opposition from local communities in the face of muscle flexing by state and central security forces.
The Hmar Inpui (Supreme house), the Sinlung Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Organisation (SIPHRO), the Zomi Human Rights Foundation, among others, have also expressed their opposition to the oil exploration activities. It, however, remains unclear if this will affect JOGPL, the Government of Manipur and Government of India’s plan to continue with the oil exploration irrespective.
