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Nirma plant: SC holds out hope for Mahuva farmers


The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Union Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) to file its reply on whether the proposed cement plant by Nirma Limited in Mahuva taluka of Bhavnagar district would pollute or adversely affect the water body on the site.

A three-judge SC bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadiya, Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice K S Radhakrishnan issued the notice while hearing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Shree Mahua Bandhara Khetiwadi Pariyavaran Bachav Samittee.

The petitioner, a group of farmers from around Mahuva, had challenged the order of the Gujarat High Court allowing Nirma to go ahead with its plant on the land allotted by the state government. Originally, the state government had allotted 268 hectares of land in the region to Nirma to set up the cement plant in 2008, triggering mass protests by local farmers led by BJP MLA Dr Kanu Kalsariya.

The Samittee had filed a PIL in the HC seeking direction to the state government to cancel the land allotment claiming it would jeopardize the local ecology and livelihood of the farmers.

The petition argued that out of the 268 hectares of land allotted to Nirma, 222 hectares was part of a water body, which had come into existence after prolonged efforts to build check dams in the region to check salinity ingress.

Nirma had proposed to surrender 54 hectares of the allotted land. Subsequently, HC had dismissed the petition and allowed Nirma to go ahead with the cement plant. The petitioner had moved a review petition in the HC against this order. However, the review petition was also dismissed by the HC following which the petitioner preferred an SLP in the apex court.

The SLP was heard by the three-judge bench of SC on Monday. The petitioner was represented by senior counsel Harish Salve along with advocate Kamini Jaiswal.

While asking the MOEF to file its reply on whether the proposed cement plant would pollute or adversely affect the water body or the region as a whole, the SC bench also made oral observation that if the MoEF gives answers to its queries against Nirma, it would scrap the project.