Meghalaya tribals back Lafarge mining
Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, Oct 21, 2010, 01.48am IST
NEW DELHI: At a time when local opposition has put question marks over mega projects like Posco and Vedanta, tribals in Nongtrai village in Meghalaya have come out in support of Lafarge Umium and requested the Supreme Court to allow it to resume mining of limestone.
It was on a petition by Shella Action Committee (SAC), a grouping of villages in the area, that the SC had on February 5 stayed mining of limestone in Nongtrai village within Shella Confederacy in Meghalaya, thereby stopping supply of raw material to Lafarge Surma`s $255 million cement plant at Chhatak in Bangladesh`s Sunamganj.
Though the environment ministry conducted a rapid assessment and gave clearance in April under the Forest Conservation Act asking Lafarge Umium to pay over Rs 100 crore towards afforestation and environment conservation, the matter was not effectively taken up by the apex court given the strong opposition from amicus curiae Harish Salve and the SAC to resumption of mining without a proper environment management plan. What could help the Centre, which had been feverishly arguing for permission to resume mining as it hurt India`s ties with Bangladesh, to renew its plea was the recent affidavit filed by Nongtrai Village Durbar (NVD), Shella Confederacy, opposing the SAC claim.
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