India Coal Sector Projects Authorized for Investigation.

​WORLD BANK BOARD AUTHORIZES AN INSPECTION PANEL INVESTIGATION

WASHINGTON, October 9, 2001.The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved on September 7, 2001, the independent Inspection Panel's recommendation to conduct an investigation into the Bank's compliance with its own policies related to activities in the Parej East mining area under a Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project and a Coal Sector Rehabilitation Project in India. The Executive Directors' decision was taken on a no-objection basis and without judgement on the merits of the Request for Inspection.

The Panel will be making plans for its investigation in the near future. According to Panel regulations, the investigation will only focus on the Bank's actions and omissions related to the Projects.

The Panel report concluded (1) that the Request for Inspection met all eligibility criteria required under the Resolution establishing the Panel; and (2) that the Request for Inspection and the Management Response to it "contain conflicting assertions and interpretations about issues, the underlying assumptions, the facts, compliance and harm and potential harm." The Panel therefore recommended that the Executive Directors authorize an investigation "into the matters alleged in the Request."

The Panel will be looking into whether or not the Bank has observed its own policies and procedures, inter-alia, on Environmental Assessment (OD 4.01), on Indigenous Peoples (OD 4.20), on Involuntary Resettlement (OD 4.30), on Disclosure of Operational Information, (BP 17.50), on Management of Cultural Property in Bank-Financed Projects (OPN 11.03), and on Project Supervision (OD 13.05).

The Panel's report was prepared in response to a Request for Inspection submitted by Chotanagpur Adivasi Sewa Samiti (CASS), a local nongovernmental organization representing residents of the Parej East Coal Mining Project area in India. The Parej East coal mine is one of the 25 coal mines slated to receive financial support under the Coal Sector Rehabilitation Project (CSRP).

The Requesters claim that the communities they represent have suffered and are likely to suffer harm as a consequence of World Bank failures and omissions in the design and supervision of the Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project (CSEMSP), and resulting from the expansion of the Parej East mine which was subsequently financed under to the CSRP. Specifically, the Requesters claim that lack of proper implementation of the CSEMSP has destroyed their livelihoods, and as a result they are less able to meet their nutrition, health, and educational needs, and are unable to adequately participate in the growing formal economy. The Requesters allege that these violations, and especially the failure to restore their livelihoods, have resulted in significant harm in that they are now without compensatory land, employment and self-employment, and that they now subsist as casual laborers living at mere survival levels with the loss of human dignity. The Requesters also allege that monetary compensation for land has not been adequate, employment by the coal mining company has been kept to a minimum, and the self-employment projects which the Bank guaranteed would compensate for the loss for land and livelihood are grossly failing.

Responding to a concern from the Requesters set forth in the Request for Inspection, Management Response indicates that the Closing Date for the Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project has been extended for one year until June 30, 2002.

Copy of the Inspection Panel Eligibility Report concerning this Request for Inspection is available on this web site. As well as hard copies can be obtained from the World Bank's InfoShop (1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433 tel.: (202) 458-5454; fax: (202) 522-1500); Public Information Centers in Paris and Tokyo; and the Bank's field office in New Delhi.