New Delhi, March 25: The Supreme Court will examine on Friday the Centre’s plea to vacate its stay on mining activities carried out by French cement giant Lafarge in Meghalaya as government claimed it would otherwise affect diplomatic relations with Bangladesh.
Earlier, on February 5, a Special Forest Bench headed by Chief Justice had stayed the mining activities on the basis of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) report which said the company was extracting minerals from the land falling in the forest area.
Prior to the stay, Lafarge was carrying out mining of limestone at its mines in Meghalaya for transporting the same to its cement plant in Bangladesh, which is the livelihood source for thousands of local labourers.
The apex court agreed to hear the matter on Friday after Attorney general Goolam E Vahanvati moved an application before a bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan with the plea.
The government submitted it would disturb the diplomatic relations with Bangladesh, where Lafarge’s plant is situated, if the stay was not lifted.
The MoEF came to the conclusion that the permission for extracting limestone, a key input for making cement, from the region of Shella village in East Khasi Hills districts in Meghalaya was allegedly obtained fraudulently by showing the forest land as barren land.
On the basis of the MoEF’s finding, the apex court had stayed all mining activities saying it cannot be permitted in an eco-fragile area.
The 255-million dollar Lafarge Surma Cement project at Chhatak, Sunamganj, in Bangladesh is wholly dependent on limestone extracted from East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya.
Limestone is transported from Meghalaya to Bangaldesh in a 17-km-long conveyor belt.
–PTI