SHILLONG: After the successful implementation of the SPTS buses in the East Khasi Hills, the State Government has now decided to introduce ten buses, procured under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), in Jaintia Hills district.

Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh will formally flag off a fleet of swanky buses on February 18.

Cement plants in Jaintia Hills

SHILLONG: Amidst growing demands for closure of all cement companies operating in forest areas of Jaintia Hills, the State government has said that three companies have set up plants in the district without forest clearance.

SHILLONG: The Jaintia People Welfare Organization (JPWO), which has been opposing setting up of cement plants in Jaintia Hills district, conducted a survey of the limestone quarries, which the Cement Manufacturing Company Ltd. (CMCL) has taken on lease and also the area where the company had set up its plant.

The survey revealed that the cement plant actually exists in an abandoned land. “It is on this basis that the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF), Government of India has given permission to the CMCL to set up its plant,” said SS Dkhar, president, JPWO.

SHILLONG: The RTI findings on the cement plants in Jaintia Hills has exposed the connivance of the various Government departments including the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) and the traditional bodies which allowed the cements plants to carry out mining inside the forest areas in gross violation of the Forest Conservation Act.

SHILLONG: The Meghalaya Right to Information Movement (MRTIM) would be holding a public hearing on the RTI findings relating to the activities of the cement plants based in Jaintia Hills district at Don Bosco Youth Centre on Thursday at 11 am.

The public hearing comes at the time when the Government is under serious scanner after the High Level Committee (HLC) in its report revealed that the cement plants in Jaintia Hills are carrying out mining of limestone in ‘thick forest areas’ which is in clear violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

SHILLONG: While admitting that the issue of alleged encroachment of the cement plants in Jaintia Hills into the forest areas is a serious matter, Forest and Environment Minister Prestone Tynsong said that the Government would not hesitate to take action against the cement plants if it is established that they have violated the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 by operating in “thick” forested areas.

SHILLONG: The Leader of Opposition in Meghalaya Legislative Assembly demanded the State Government to close all the cement plants operating illegally in Jaintia Hills district, which have violated the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

Speaking to reporters in Shillong on Friday, Conrad Sangma said, “The high level committee of the government has found that most of the cement factories in Jaintia Hills are set up in the middle of the forest”.

Shillong, Jan. 6: The Opposition NCP today demanded the immediate closure of the cement plants operating in forest areas in Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills district. Apart from the closure, it also demanded from the state government to ask the companies to go for “compensatory afforestation” and to take necessary punitive action against all officials who were involved in giving clearance to the cement plants.

Shillong, Jan. 5: The Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board is awaiting a detailed report from the Central Pollution Control Board on the actual reason behind the contamination of Lukha river in Jaintia Hills, which resulted in the death of many fishes. The Lukha river near the coal mining sites in Jaintia Hills had turned blue several times last year. An official with the pollution board said after the preliminary studies, the samples collected from the river in Jaintia Hills were sent to the Central Pollution Control Board for checking.