The skeletons in the cupboards of the immoral mining industry in India are once again tumbling out. The infamous but all-powerful mining mafia of Karnataka is becoming more and more audacious and ingenious. Hundreds of tonnes of iron ore that were impounded suddenly vanished, disappeared into thin air. Even the great magician PC Sorcar could not have been so dexterous. But the miracle happened. There are many other ways in which the mining mafia cheats the nation; enough has been written about it and many malpractices revealed, but they continue to operate unchecked. All this could not be done without a nexus between the mining mafia, politicians and officials.

While reading about the nefarious activities of the mining mafia, one gets the notion that mining is the abode of the buccaneer and the scoundrel, and that only the dishonest and the corrupt operate the business and thrive in it. Public perception is not too far off the mark. It is these elements who are most notorious, but what one fails to realise is that there is a silent majority of honest players who operate within the ambit of the law, but the nefarious nexus between the dishonest, the corrupt and the conniving thwarts their effort.

Not many people know this, but for a company or an entrepreneur to get into the mining industry, and to reach a stage where they can commercially extract the minerals, there are several stages of permissions and permits to be obtained. A mining entrepreneur needs to get a reconnaissance permit first, then a prospecting licence (PL), and then a mining licence. To get a prospecting licence, the application travels across 126 desks at various levels from the gram panchayat, collectorate and state secretariat, to various departments dealing with mining at state and national level, then to the centre and various departments there, then back to the state and then a prospecting licence is granted. But it is never as easy and there is a lot of to and fro. If lucky, the applicant gets a PL, carries out exploration work to discover the extent of ore and to establish whether it is worth mining. In case the discovery proves to be commercially viable, the entrepreneur will go to the next stage of making an application: for a mining licence. Once more, the journey of the 126 desks begins. Bribes are the catalysts to hasten the process. There are some honest officials too, who play by the rulebook, but they too are frustrated. During this process, the state or any of its corporations could decide to stake claim to the discovery. This is a very sterile account of the journey of an application to get a functioning mine established in India, legally. Many have been frustrated. Establishing a mine from a newly discovered resource is a very high investment activity and there is no income until the mineral extraction commences. Very few survive the course.

If a mine is legally run with responsibility, it has the potential to bring about a financial and development renaissance in its vicinity and for the communities living in the area of its influence. One of the main concerns we face today as a nation is the ever-widening disparity between our wealthy and poor, and the development gap between our metros and our backward hinterland. Mines operating profitably and with compassion have the ability to fulfil both these critical needs. But by the time the entrepreneurs reach the stage where they can establish a mine, they have been bled so white that they just want to recover their investments, make a profit and run. As Bapu said, “If the means are immoral, the ends will also be immoral.”

The argument for allowing legal private initiatives into mining is strengthened by the fact that in 1998, India and China were both producing three tonnes of gold per annum. Today, India produces two tonnes of gold, from its sole public sector Hatti gold mine in Karnataka. China today produces more than 300 tonnes of gold per annum. If all the known gold occurrences in India were turned into producing gold mines, we could become big gold producers ourselves.

India went through the process of dismantling its licence raj and is now enjoying the boom in its economy. Free enterprise and private industries are thriving and their influence in progress is perceptible. It is time that the licence raj that throttles the legitimate private mining initiative in India is dismantled and an efficient and transparent process of granting permits and a strict-but-honest process of vigilance is established.

At the moment, only the criminals, power brokers, political patrons and conniving officials are thriving at the cost of the Indian exchequer. What is even more tragic is that the poverty stricken, powerless millions in backward villages are left to suffer.