Aggrieved by an order of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), the French building material giant Lafarge on Monday approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to take limestone from its mines in Meghalaya to its cement plant in Bangladesh.Perusing the plea put before it, the vacation Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and P P Naolekar asked the Government to explain how six lakh tonnes of already-extracted limestone, which was lying at the quarry, should be disposed of in view of the current monsoon season. The Ministry will furnish its reply within two weeks.Lafarge in its application has challenged a May 2007 order of MoEF directing it to stop work at the quarries on the ground that mining was not permitted in forest areas. According to the company, which is one of the top makers of building and construction material, it wanted to transport six lakh tonnes of limestone, a key input for manufacturing cement, from East Khasi Hills to the neighbouring country.The said order amounted to putting an end to supply of raw material for its $ 255 million Lafarge Surma Cement project at Chhatak in Bangladesh, as it was fully dependent on limestone extracted from East Khasi Hills, the court was informed.Appearing for the company, senior counsels Mukul Rohtagi and Sanjeev Kapoor submitted that the ministry had earlier allowed th company to transport limestone from Meghalaya to Bangladesh by a 17-km-long conveyor belt, and the sudden reversal of stand had rendered its plant non-operational.While Lafarge has filed an application under the Forest Protection Act seeking permission for non-forest activity in the forest area, it wants the already extracted limestone to be allowed to be transported to its plant in Bangladesh.“The company has stopped its work at the quarries but it should be permitted to transport around 6,00,000 tonnes of already extracted limestone as the same would get spoiled due to rain,” the counsel said.
