PHM-Exch> World Bank's sham 'consultation' to review of its environmental and social safeguards shut down in Bangalore, India

[Claudio Schuftan]

    From:    jaaksecretariat at gmail.com

 Press Release: Bangalore: 08 April 2013

*World Bank's sham 'consultation' to review of its environmental and social
safeguards shut down in Bangalore*

excerpts

About 25 activist representatives, researchers, environmental specialists,
policy analysts, lawyers and health professionals from a wide range of
social and environmental action groups, peoples networks and movements of
Karnataka, forced the closure of The World Bank's 'consultation' on the
review of its environmental and social safeguards in Bangalore today
(08/04/2013). The 'consultation' was slammed as a 'complete sham' which
'must be denounced by anyone genuinely concerned about the nature of
democracy and broad based public interest, and committed to the principle
of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), climate justice, sustainable
development through democratic decision making and the Principle of
Intergenerational Equity'. Moreover it was made into an occasion to
denounce the various projects that have destroyed the environment and
various communities, and to demand the World Bank to quit India.

 Stephen F. Lintner, Senior Advisor, Operational Policy and Client Services
of The World Bank had flown in from Washington DC (USA) to hold the
'consultation' at Hotel Atria in Bangalore, along with Preeti Kudesia,
Senior Operations Officer of the Bank. The meeting was supposed to have
been facilitated by Anubrotto Kumar (Dunu) Roy, Honorary Director of
Hazards Centre, New Delhi.

 Of those invited by the Bank, about 5 represented various civil society
and research organisations, and a dozen or so officials represented various
agencies of the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments. The consultation
was held barely a stone's throw from the Karnataka Legislative Assembly,
and yet, shockingly, not one Parliamentarian, Legislator, Municipal
Councillor or Panchayat member from anywhere had been invited. This amply
demonstrated what a mockery of democracy the exercise was.

 The invited gathering of about 20 odd 'representatives' of 'civil society
organisations' and Governments of various Central and Southern States of
India were probably invited by the Bank to accord a certain legitimacy to
the review exercise. Were it not for the intervention of progressive social
and environmental action activists, this charade of 'consulting' the
'public' would probably have been passed of as a successful process, and
the exercise possibly used to legitimise the weak safeguards of the Bank.

 Clifton D’ Rozario of the Alternative Law Forum read out a detailed
statement (available from address above) which strongly critiqued the World
Bank's 'consultation' process and also its investment policies. He attacked
the Bank's double-speak on claiming belief in democratic decision making,
when, in fact, all it does is talk to an elite section of society and claim
such opinion gathering held in classy hotels as peoples' sanction to the
Bank's investment policies. He also reminded the World Bank of its
responsibility in regard to the devastation heaped on the thousands  of
adivasis and farmers in the Narmada Valley due to Sardar Sarovar dam, which
it fails to own up to even today. He also decried the so-called ‘knowledge
production’ by the World Bank as methods to monetise and commodify all
resources and even relationships.

 Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group criticised the flawed process of
the Bank's consultation mechanisms and said it amounted to ritualising the
FPIC Principle. He demanded that the Bank cancel the charade being passed
of as a 'consultation' as it was against the jurisprudence that had evolved
in India which required deep application of FPIC Principle in
decision-making. The current process seriously compromised people's right
to know and participate in decisions that affect them and exposed the
Bank's vacuous claim of being a 'change maker' in developing progressive
environmental and social safeguards.

Despite repeatedly being urged to speak, not one of the officials
representing various Government agencies chose to spoke. Mr. S. M. Jamdar,
a senior bureaucrat of the Karnataka Government who recently retired, also
did not speak. He, however, spoke to media persons where he is reported to
have said that he shared all the concerns being aired, and said it is
critical that these messages reached senior politicians and bureaucrats of
the Government who were complicit in perpetuating such systemic problems.

In the face of such informed criticism of its actions, policies and
'consultation' procedures, Stephen Lintner decided finally that the
'consultation' had ended without any adherence to the Agenda the World Bank
had proposed.

The organisations that participated were Peoples Union for Civil Liberties
– Karnataka, Environment Support Group, Alternative Law Forum, Peoples’
Campaign Against Water Privatisation, Janaarogya Andolana – Karnataka,
Vimochana, CIEDS Collective, CIVIC Bangalore and various others in their
individual capacity.


JOINT STATEMENT AND PICTURES  available
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20130410/5358c175/attachment.html>