Call for social audit of cement companies

Shillong: Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR) has demanded social audit of cement factories while expressing solidarity with the residents of Lumshnong and its adjacent villages in their opposition to the Star Cement’s plan to expand its limestone mining activities.
“The activities of cement factories in the area have led to an environmental crisis in the state especially in Jaintia Hills,” the organisation said in a statement.
It also stated that factories in the area were established by bending environmental regulations, forest laws and indigenous land laws.
Moreover, lax regulation by the government meant that pollution caused by the factories remained, it added.
“It is high time the cement factories are socially audited to examine their legal status and their environmental and economic impact.
TUR believes that environmentally sustainable and egalitarian development is possible only when common property rights are respected,” the statement said.