The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has issued a show-cause notice to Nirma Limited for the company's proposed cement plant, coke oven plant and captive power plant to be set up near Mahuva in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat.
In the notice issued on Saturday, the ministry directed the company to stop the the work, including construction work of the project, with immediate effect until further orders from the ministry.
The ministry has also asked the company to show a cause as to why the environmental clearances accorded to the project should not be revoked and the stoppage of the work not be made permanent.
The local farmers have been agitating for past four years and raised objection for the allocation of land to Nirma for the proposed cement plant on enviromental grounds. The proposed cement plant, that involves an approximate investment of Rs 900 crore by the company, was allocated land that has reservoir and catchment area spread across 268 hectares.
In its observations and examination of the project, the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), constituted by the MoEF, had concluded that there could be alternative sites enough in the vicinity that breed no contention. The EAC noted that no wet land, so secured in deed by the government for preserving eco systems, needs therefore to be razed to pitch a cement plant therein.
The MoEF has accepted the conclusions reached by the EAC and thereby has issued a show-cause notice to the company.
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The notice was issued under the Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 regarding the company's upcoming cement plant having a capacity of 1.91 MTPA, coke oven plant with a capacity of 1.5 LTPA and a captive power plant with a capacity of 50 Mw.
The farmers had made representations to the union environment minister, Jairam Ramesh in January 2011, besides they have also moved the Supreme Court opposing allocation of land to Nirma.