Barbara Harriss-White - The Wild East : Criminal Political Economies in South Asia

• Scavenging coal from abandoned mines and tailings
• Illegal transport of coal syndicates and coal traders
• Illegal sales to legal businesses
• Extortion, forgery, manipulation of auctions, control of railways, violent enforcement (paramount regulatory authority), murders, paper companies, paper transactions, widespread bribery to private managers and state officials mafia
• Tax evasion coal traders and mafia
• Simultaneous leadership of several labour unions mafia

• Neglect of laws for fire-fighting and prevention central and state corporations
• Neglect of stabilisation of abandoned mines central and state corporations
• Restrictive re-interpretation of eligibility for resettlement and rehabilitation, evasion of liability for resettlement and rehabilitation, forced eviction of trespassers state corporations and departments, police
• Unregulated subterranean mining central and state corporations, private companies
• Illegal opencast mining coal mafia
• Violation of fire regulations general
• Violation of mining regulations in proximity of infrastructure central and state agencies
• Total neglect of health and safety regulations (e.g. electricity cables) central and state agencies
• Neglect of treatment/compensation for preventable accidents and explosions central and state agencies
• Complete lack of implementation of environmental law central and state agencies
• Diversion of sand for stowage, false invoicing state agencies, coal mafia
• Illegal private subcontracting of fire control central and state agencies
• Negligent planning state agencies
• Theft from mines and tailings at all levels of coal-mining operations and criminal organisations
• Theft from rail wagons organised for larger criminal coal-mining operations by unions
• Threat of violence against trade unionists (murder) mafia
• Extortion of scavengers state agencies and criminals
• Appointments in state enterprise based on mafia allegiances throughout the system all India

• Violation of dozens of riverbed sand-mining regulations (unmarked mines, unrecorded extraction, depth exceeded, shift length exceeded, lorry loading limits exceeded, unauthorised roads constructed, unauthorised diversion of water courses) sand miners on an increasing scale and party members
• Misuse of permit allocation procedure politicians
• Negligent failure to monitor and enforce state agencies
• Sabotage of court cases; failure to implement judgments; failure to act on state-ordered enquiry commissions mafia, state (and judiciary)
• Extensive complicity with criminal mining, criminal sharing of illegal profits mafia, bureaucracy and politicians
• Physical assault and murder
• Massive tax evasion mafia
• Purchase of votes political party cadres funded from apex
• Threats and fear leading to press self-censorship

• Opaque memoranda of understanding leading to the emergence of criminal markets in MoUs state and speculative capital
• Violations of laws for environmental clearance, compensation state
• Discretionary and nepotistic awards of contracts and permits political elite
• Theft of and black market in materials business
• Threat and abuse of illegitimate force politicians
• Widespread violations of state and tribal customary norms engineering and procurement companies
• Diversion of resources and unauthorised privatisation of common property business, local headmen
• Bribes to voters local politicians

• Criminal abuse of insider information state and business
• Undeclared conflicts of interest between business and politics state and business with pressure on regulators
• Unpunished violations of policy/ad hoc (retrospective) policy changes state
• Discretionary queue-jumping in allocations state and business
• Negligent enforcement state
• Bribery, favours in kind and nepotism business
• Undermining of regulations

6.1. Fuel oil

• Vandalism of pipelines mafia and engineers
• Unauthorised tunnelling mafia and engineers with labour
• Theft from pipelines mafia and engineers
• Illegal mini refineries mafia
• Unlicensed tankers, trucks and retailers mafia
• Forgery mafia
• Adulteration of fuel oil and kerosene mafia with skilled labour
• Illegal trade in adulterants mafia
• Distribution of petrol station licences through political patronage not merit politicians and mafia
• Pollution from violations of air quality legislation state and business
• Manipulation and evasion of state regulations to avoid prosecution mafia
• Tax evasion mafia
• Structuring of operations through cross-state impunity mafia
• Illegal protection by mafia as brokers for political protection mafia
• Violence, murder mafia
• Bribes to Police, Civil Supplies Department bureaucracies and village-level politicians and officials mafia

6.2. Sand

• Widespread violation of environmental and mining laws and regulations as per mafia
• Illegal rental markets for trucks mafia
• Bribery of police mafia
• Bribes to Regional Transport Office and to check-post goons illegal transporters/mafia
• Extortion of taxes from small miners and transporters mining mafia
• Murder, violent injury and abduction

• Violation (and manipulation) of legislation protecting endangered species state and mafia
• International trafficking
• Bribery and criminal protection by politicians and officials at every stage of inter-State trade and international export, diversion through SEZs, concealed storage in forests, port godowns, SEZs, containers, fake registration of trucks, forged government seals on containers, fake customs information mafia with complicity and direct involvement of politicians
• Mafia control over and profits from markets for postings in bureaucracy, police, customs and excise and port authorities. Bribes and in-kind payments to officials in Forest Department, check-posts, regional transport authorities, extortion from mafia by officials in police mafia and state agencies
• Torture, mutilation, encounters and murder on massive scales mafia, politicians and state agencies
• Private party-politicised use of machinery of state violence politicians
• Politically justified brutality on the part of the states task forces politicians and private militias
• Coercive control of labour; criminalisation of labour mafia with state and police
• Arrests disproportionate to convictions police and state

• Breaches of Urban Land Acts (Regulation and Ceilings) and Rent/Tenancy Acts landlords and brokers
• Manipulation of contracts (unfulfillable conditions) and procedure lawyers and brokers
• Speculative litigation and brokerage as businesses; intimidation, threats by hired thugs and killings brokers and criminal gangs
• Bribery of police and courts litigants
• Clashes of custom and law for tenant protection power asymmetries in out-of-court settlements