In a major relief to French cement giant Lafarge, the Supreme Court on Wednesday permitted it to resume mining of limestone in Meghalaya’s
Khasi hills for its plant in neighbouring Bangladesh stalled for over a year by the apex court after a report of CEC about violation of environment
norms by the company.
The order of the top court, permitting mining by Lafarge, not only came as relief to the company for also to the Indian government ahead of Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh’s planned visit to Bangladesh in September as the stoppage of the mining by the apex court in February 2010 had become a
big diplomatic row between the two countries. A forest bench, comprising CJI S.H. Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam and K.S. Radhakrishnan gave the
clearance to Lafarge after the MoEF had given the go ahead in April 2010, but various local groups had challenged it. In the present circumstances,
“We are satisfied that limestone mining has been going on for centuries in the area and that it is an activity which is intertwined with the
culture and the unique land holding and tenure system of the Nongtrai Village,” the bench said.
The court said that the environment clearance was given by MoEF with “due diligence and it was fully “satisfied” with the exercise undertaken by
the ministry regarding the evaluation of the environment impact.