Tura, Mar 18: In the wake of strong opposition against the operation of a stone quarry at Nokatgre in South Garo Hills, Greneth M Sangma, the owner of the said quarry has claimed in a clarification that the opposition is baseless and being made by a few envious vested interest persons.
“I only wanted to start the quarry as there were no licensed quarries in South Garo Hills. After the nokma of Nokatgre and his clan gave the NOC, the Letter of Intent Issue (LOI) was granted by the DFO and the Non Forest Land Certificate was issued to me. The permission was given to me as per the Meghalaya Minor Minerals Concession Rules, 2016 of the Pollution Control Board. I have invested time and money for 3 whole years to begin operating the quarry and the opposition against it now is only an act of envy towards me,” the clarification by owner Greneth M Sangma, read.
The clarification also claimed that the impact from the stone quarry would exclude Re’nang Dare, Balpakram and the Nokrek National Park Eco Sensitive Zones, and that the Tura Wildlife DFO had cleared the NOC. According to Greneth, prominent committees like the State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and NGT besides others had also approved the proposed quarry and issued the necessary papers.