10: Issue & Challenges of Socio-Economic Aspects for Development Project as Responsibilities to Commercial Activities

“Commercial entities often prioritize revenue generation over socio-economic development, giving little weightage to the latter. They tend to approach socio-economic development in a casual manner” 

Corporate Environment Responsibility (CER) is often confused with the slab system. The state committee defines the slab system differently from the proponent, who takes it as written in OM. The activities defined under CER are questionable and acceptable to the state committee. Another aspect raised by the proponent is that when a company is already doing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), what is the need for doing it under another head as CER, and what is the significance related to it? Above all, what is the time duration of spending the said budget? 

Another problem is the lack of a NEED Assessment Survey, which the proponent avoids doing and tries to manage according to their willingness. This results in more supply-side management rather than understanding local community demand.

Documentation of social needs and missing links, as observed in the EIA Report, is another important point. Chapter 3 is largely based on a baseline survey through both primary and secondary data, and the conclusion drawn in this is related to Chapter 4, where its impact and mitigation are well defined, which later could be planned under CSR activities in Chapter 8. However, the quality aspects of the EIA report do not show these linkages, and each chapter is written sitting on the island 

Another important aspect is that we give more weightage to the financial audit and keep aside the social audit. The financial audit report says that a certain amount of money was spent doing certain activities in a village. 

To address the issue of socio-economic development, it is important to ensure that activities are carried out in nearby villages where the green/brownfield project is coming. However, it is unclear what has been done, how it has been done, who the beneficiaries are, and whether they have received the real benefits 

Another problem is the lack of trained professionals who understand the meaning of development, how to assess, how to select samples, how to know the demand, and methodologies to identify the demands 

Moreover, there are no interlinkages between the ministries, especially with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs with others like the Ministry of Environment, education, water, etc. This results in the streamlining of the socio-economic demand missing out.