Shimla, June 23 (IANS) A team of the National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) Wednesday visited Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district where French cement giant Lafarge’s plant is coming up and heard grievances of the local people against the company.
The team, comprising NEAA Chairman J.C. Kala, recorded the statements of the people and visited the proposed cement plant site and limestone mines to assess the environment clearance granted to the project by the environment and forests ministry last year.
Kala, who refused to talk to reporters, said: ‘I am here to understand the gravity of the problem, if any, with the commissioning of the cement plant.’
Local villager K.G. Thakur told IANS: ‘It’s shocking that the environment impact assessment report presented by the project proponents has no mention of the extensive damage to the ecology.’
Another resident Pratap Singh Thakur said: ‘Though the expert advisory committee of the environment ministry visited the project site in May 2009, it deliberately refused to hear the grievances of the people affected by the plant.’
The ministry granted environment clearance in June 2009, he said, adding that 16 villages would be affected by the project.
Environmentalist Prakash Bhandari said: ‘The on-the-spot visit of the NEAA chairman is a critical step in assessing the ground situation and it also re-assures the local people that their concerns are being heard.’
The NEAA is the only judicial body in the country allowed to hear grievances against environmental clearances given to projects by the environment and forests ministry.
Cement giant Lafarge has been present in India, the world’s second largest cement market, since 1999.
