Editor,
The tripartite agreement between several cement companies, the state forest department and the Ministry of Environment and Forests which will allow cement companies to purchase land for the proposed afforestation activity
is preposterous and ludicrous. How can a government which has failed to monitor the incessant, relentless flouting of norms of these cement companies have the audacity to even think of such an agreement. The Joint Inspection Team report which was approved by the Ministry of Environment and Forests indicated that 1600 hectares (close to 4000 acres) of forest land was misused by the nine cement companies in Jaintia Hills. It is also very devious on the part of the government to come up with such an agreement even after having knowledge that such an agreement would amount
to a violation of the provisions of the Land Transfer Act and the Sixth Schedule and the fact that the very same companies violated the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act 1980 by operating in ‘thick’ forest areas. The state government also added fuel to the fire by succumbing to the demands of the mining lobby by amending the Meghalaya Forest Regulation
(Application and Amendment) Act, 1973 to provide a license to deforest with impunity. The state government is either too naïve or rash to accept such a proposal. Ideally, the government should have intervened at the beginning when the cement companies were reported to have contravened the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act 1980. Such violation should have been dealt with through penal and strict disciplinary action. If the state government is interested in protecting the rights of its people and the environment, it should ensure that these companies reclaim and rehabilitate the mines
that they have exploited and afforest it rather than give them more land and fine these companies for destruction of the environment and forests as well as deliberate contravention of environmental law.
Yours etc.,
Jonathan Donald Syiemlieh
New Delhi
