Let them buy their way out: AG on Lafarge

SC gets details of a six-point formula.

The Attorney General of India today formally presented to the Supreme Court the details of a six-point formula (reflecting the government’s views) to get over the problem of limestone mining in breach of the rules on forest land in Meghalaya by French company Lafarge for its cement plant in Bangladesh.

The Union government is anxious that the matter be resolved and the project not be shut down, since it was set up as part of an Indo-Bangladesh treaty.

The next hearing in the SC is the coming Monday. However, the bench, presided over by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, is to consider these suggestions only later. First, Harish Salve, the senior counsel appointed by it to assist in the ‘forest matter’, would examine the proposals. The Union ministry of environment and forests would also do so, under the Forest Conservation Act, as 116 hectares of forest land is involved; they could well add more conditions.

The French firm was agreeable to the suggestions and said it would go beyond these, to fulfil its social commitments.

At the earlier hearing, on March 29, the SC judges refused to lift the ban it had earlier imposed on the mining (the AG pleaded for the lifting), demanded an entirely new environmental impact assessment (Salve, for instance, said the earlier one was fit only for the garbage bin), with due advance notice to the area populace, and noted the evidence on breach of rules were serious and substantial.

According to the AG’s tentative recommendations, Lafarge will deposit Rs 55 crore to start with, as a multiple of the Net Present Value of the forest land in use, plus interest with effect from April 2007, as recommended by an SC-appointed panel. The money is to be used for welfare projects for the area’s tribal populace.

A special purpose vehicle (SPV) shall be set up under the chairmanship of the chief secretary, Meghalaya, with the principal chief conservator of forests of the state and other top officials within a month. Lafarge is to also deposit with the SPV a sum of Rs 80 per tonne of the limestone mined so far, within a month. Thereafter, such deposits will be made with the SPV every month. The accounts will be audited by the Accountant General of the state. The SPV and he would file an annual report before the Supreme Court detailing the work done regarding the welfare projects, like health, education, economy, irrigation and agriculture in the tribal area.

The firm is to also prepare, as recommended by an official panel, a detailed catchment area treatment plan and explore the use of surface mining technology. It shall monitor ambient area quality according to national standards. Sewerage treatment plants shall be set up and the firm will stop all disorganised and unscientific unsustainable mining. It shall also prepare a comprehensive forest rehabilitation scheme for the whole area. And, maintain a 100-metre green belt around the mining area.

As for Lafarge, it said it hoped the matter would be resolved soon. “Lafarge is fully committed to total legal and environmental compliance. The company has always acted in good faith respecting the laws of the land wherever it operates —- with strong commitments to environment and development of the local communities,” went its statement, which made no reference to the severe strictures heaped by the official panel on the way the project went through.