India's super profit; Manipur mortgaged
- Part 3 -

Campaign for Peace & Democracy (Manipur) *

Resource exploited

There has been gradual loss of control over the natural resources (including land) as:

• Resources are regularly de-regulated by the Indian laws and transferred for private use to outsiders, government agencies and corporate bodies for economic exploitation without the consent of the people[21]. Natural resources are no longer absolutely managed by the local people. "Forests are stripped off, water bodies destroyed by pollution, hydro-electricity generation projects and neglect of maintenance."[22]
• Controversial capitalist projects are being forcibly imposed. Capitalist 'projects' become controversial as a result of state violation of existing democratic norms[23], lack of transparency and public accountability[24], corruption, mismanagement, brutal suppression of public opinion[25], and arbitrary imposition of projects under the protection of police or paramilitary forces[26].
• The controversial Loktak Hydro Electric Power Project and Tipaimukh Dam are few of the several examples to illustrate.

• There is visible lack of a Scientific Integrated Approach to systematic utilization of multiple advantages thrown open by Loktak Lake."[27]
• A total of 27,404.94 acres of agricultural land are lost as a result of the Loktak Project. The government of India has not planned compensation to landowners whose cultivating fields are being destroyed[28].
• While heavy lost remains uncompensated, the power project is owned and managed by the National Hydro-Electric Power Corporation (NHPC). Instead of supplying electricity for local consumption, the project sells power to neighbouring states. As a result Manipur purchases electricity from Assam for home consumption and suffers from constant blackout.

• According to a protest raised in 2001, "…The proposed 162.80 metres high dam, … will result in permanent submergence of 275.50 sq kms of land surface in Manipur…The Manipur people's constitutional rights were circumvented by secret approval of the project given during the period of central rule in Manipur (in 2001)… The government of Manipur is at present attempting to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited without the participation of the people, particularly the affected people of Tamenglong district. …"[29].
• The Government of Manipur, however, has decided to go ahead with the project at any cost without taking into consideration public opinion. In March 2009 it had demanded provision of four battalions of central paramilitary forces in addition to the pre-existing forces for deployment in the Tipaimukh project areas[30].

• The Plan outlay in agriculture from first to fourth Five Years Plans were Rs 6.30; 109.51; 190.97 and 305.66 lakhs respectively only. According to Mohendro "one cannot possibly expect 'impressive' turn with this meagre outlay"[33].
• There was absence of a sound development strategy for agriculture planning guided by the principles of: increased productivity of land and labour; bringing more land under cultivation; and increased intensity of cropping. No attempt was made to strengthen agricultural base in terms of improvement in: Land system, Irrigation, Technology, Institutional finance and etc. No census of land holdings and cultivation was carried out for Manipur as late as 1955.[34]
• According to a survey published in 2006 only 8 per cent of the total geographical area of Manipur was under agricultural operations, compared to the All India average of 64 per cent. The spread of irrigation was comparatively poor with merely 15.5 per cent of the total area cultivated being under irrigation.
• The share of agriculture in the state's income had declined from 45.6 per cent in 1980-81 to 24.7 per cent in 2003-04. Compared to the all India trend, this is a far more steep fall since the share of the primary sector in the state fell from 49 percent in 1980-81 to 29.2 per cent in 2003-04 as against 38 percent to 25 per cent at the all- India level[35].
• According to the Manipur State Assembly, Manipur had no agricultural policy as late as 2007 and that the matter had been "under active consideration of the Govt."[36]