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SC order banning mining in Meghalaya lands |
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NEW DELHI: Supreme Court's order last month turning off supply of limestone on environmental grounds from Meghalaya to French cement giant Lafarge's $255 million cement plant in Bangladesh has put India in a piquant diplomatic situation.
The Sheikh Hasina regime deputed senior officials to New Delhi to seek urgent intervention of the Manmohan Singh government saying stoppage of raw material guaranteed in 2001 by India would mean a 15% fall in cement production in Bangladesh and a severe setback to its housing projects.
The Nicolas Sarkozy government too activated its embassy in New Delhi to take up the issue with India, saying the French company's cement venture in Bangladesh was an important initiative to generate employment in the natural disaster ravaged country as well as to fight poverty.
In this background, attorney general Goolam E Vahanvati on Tuesday made an urgent mention of the matter before a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan.
Without attempting to veil the magnitude of the diplomatic embarrassment being faced by India, the AG said SC had been misled into passing the order stopping limestone supply to the cement plant in Bangladesh "causing a huge international problem" for India. The Bench agreed to list the matter for hearing on March 26.
The February 5 order stopping mining in East Khasi Hill District till further orders came with a sense of outrage from the Forest Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices S H Kapadia and Aftab Alam, which took exception to tribal land being allegedly transferred in violation of rules to the French company's subsidiary and then mortgaged to a host of foreign banks for raising a loan of $153 million.
Petitioner `Shella Action Committee' had alleged that not only was the land, falling under Schedule VI of the Constitution banning its transfer to non-tribals, illegally taken over in collusion with local officials, but mining was started without the mandatory clearance from ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) under the Forest Conservation Act (FCA).
Amicus curiae Harish Salve and A D N Rao had said the eco-fragile area was opened up without the mandatory forest clearance and the raw material was being sent to Bangladesh at cost price, depriving India of huge revenue from customs and other duties.
Unaware of the huge diplomatic row the government was walking into, additional solicitor general Harin Raval, who appeared for MoEF, had told the court that the ministry had clearly issued an order in May 2007 staying the mining operations, but the SC had allowed it to go on.
Lafarge Umuiam Mining Pvt Ltd (LUMPL) was mining the limestone quarry area spread over 100 hectares near Indo-Bangladesh border for supply of raw material to Lafarge Surma Cement Project at Chhatak in Sunamganj, Bangladesh.
Lafarge and Spanish cement producer Cementos Mollins had set up the state-of-the-art fully integrated cement plant at Chhatak with a captive power plant of 300 mw. In 2001, the Bangladesh high commissioner and then Indian foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh had signed an agreement for uninterrupted supply of raw material to the plant from the mines in Meghalaya.
After this agreement, Lafarge had claimed to have obtained relevant clearances from MoEF, the state government, the autonomous hill council and the chief conservator of forest for limestone quarrying in East Khasi Hills.
Source :TOI
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