Lafarge plan evokes protests

Lafarge's plan to set up a Rs 1,000 plant in Meghalaya has hit a roadblock with locals stepping up their protests against the proposed project citing environmental hazards.
The location of the planned 1.1 million-tonne greenfield integrated cement factory is limestone-rich Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya, close to Bangladesh.
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 officials said.
However, hundreds of people of Nongkhlieh area, where the plant is proposed to be set up, foiled Thursday 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.
Carrying black flags and placards, the protesters 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 Lafarge has already obtained an NOC from the Dorbar (traditional tribal village council) of Nongkhlieh village.
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 has been shut since February following an order by the Indian Supreme Court on a petition filed by an NGO.