New Request from India. The World Bank Inspection Panel Receives a Request for Inspection into the Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project in India.

CONTACT: Eduardo G. Abbott

Telephone: (202) 458-5200

WASHINGTON, JUNE 26, 2001 – The World Bank independent Inspection Panel, on Friday, June 22, 2001, accepted a Request for Inspection into a part of the IDA financed Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project, in Jharkhand, India. The Request, also relates to a subsequent IBRD financed Coal Sector Rehabilitation Project in the same area. Chotanagpur Adivasi Sewa Samiti (CASS), a local nongovernmental organization representing residents of the East Parej Coal Mining Project area, submitted the Request.

The Requesters claim that their rights/interests have been adversely affected as a result of the Bank's violations of its own policies and procedures on involuntary resettlement, indigenous peoples, environmental assessment, disclosure of operational Information, management of cultural property, and project supervision. The Requesters claim that lack of proper implementation of the Project 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. The Requesters, nonetheless call on Bank Management and the Board of Executive Directors to prolong the Project.

Bank Management is required to respond to the claims made in the Request by no later than July 24, 2001. After the Panel receives this response, it will determine whether the Request meets the eligibility criteria, and will make a recommendation to the Bank's Executive Directors on whether the matter should be investigated.