Plans of French cement giant Lafarge to set up a Rs 1000 crore plant in Meghalaya has met with a roadblock, with locals upping their ante citing environmental hazards.
Lafarge plans to invest to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore to set up a 1.1 million tons greenfield integrated cement plant in limestone-rich Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya.
The project plan is at a preliminary stage and the company is currently conducting technical and feasibility studies to assess various parameters of the project, company sources said.
On Thursday, hundreds of people of the Nongkhlieh area where the plant is proposed foiled a move by officials of the district council to carry out a survey of the area and warned against issuing any no-objection certificate to the company.
Local villagers holding black flags and placards demonstrated at the site contending that the proposed plant would lead to degradation of the environment and cause disharmony among inhabitants of the area.
The district council officials had to return without doing the survey.
Sources said that Lafarge has already obtained a no-objection-certificate (NOC) from the Dorbar (traditional tribal village council) of Nongkhlieh village.
Shouting slogans against the district council, the protesters also demanded resignation of the Dorbar chief for granting the NOC. Lafarge, on its part, has initiated developmental projects in the area for the benefit of the local community.
Being an integrated cement plant, it will have its own captive limestone source in close proximity of the unit.
The French company's limestone mining project in Meghalaya is also shut since February following an apex court order on a petition filed by an NGO alleging that Lafarge's mining activities violated the constitutional provision against handing over tribal land in the northeast to non-tribals.
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