Kind attention :

The Chief Secretary to the Govt. of Himachal Pardesh,
Shimla.

The International Organisation for Animal Protection - OIPA in India instruct panel Advocates to look in to and move public interest litigation, if necessary: -
Naresh Kadyan,
Rep. of OIPA in India.

There is widespread resentment in the panoramic Sunder Nagar valley of this district against the setting up of proposed cement plant at Khatwari barely 5 km from the main town.

The environmentalists are also up in arms against the proposed plant which they apprehend would cause large scale environmental degradation and great health hazards to the dense human settlements around it, wildlife and vegetations. They lament that the cement plant would destroy the vast tourism potential yet to be harnessed in the green valley.

It may be recalled that in 1998 Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had refused permission for the setting up of the proposed plant because of its proximity to the Bandli Wildlife Sanctuary.

It is, however, intriguing that subsequently the cement company allegedly manipulated to get the no objection certificate (NOC) to set up a cement plant with minor alterations reportedly in connivance with the forest and other officials.

Lalit Sharma, secretary, Anti-Cement Plant Action Committee, says that the Supreme Court vide its interim orders had ruled that no cement plant could be set up within a distance of 10 km from the wildlife sanctuary. It is surprising how the concerned company managed to get NOC for the proposed cement industry which is barely 1500 meters from the mining site of the plant.

Of late the command of the stir against setting up of cement plant has gone to the hands of women leaders who have sent representations to President Pratibha Patil and Congress president Sonia Gandhi praying them to stop the construction of the proposed cement plant.

The Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA) world over have warned that the emissions of the cement plants contain dioxins which cause the worst known human cancer. The WHO has also recently sent a note of warning confirming that the most toxic dioxins are the worst known human carcinogens, which causes cancer.

The most harmful pollutants in the emissions from the cement kilns are invisible. A noted environment scientist of US, Dr Carman, stresses that the claim of the vested interests that nothing can be seen in the air is a meaningless argument. According to him the hard metals like mercury emitted from cement plant cause birth defects, neurological disorders and stress syndromes.

Former Union Minister Sukh Ram wants a blanket ban on cement plants and advises the government to learn a lesson from the example of the once green Dehradun valley which has been devastated by the infamous cement industry.

Similarly Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh advocates pollution free industry for the hilly state notwithstanding vast lime deposits in the state. Ironically some cement plants came into being when he was the chief minister, which Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had disclosed in the Assembly session in a rejoinder to a question asked by Himachal Congress chief Thakur Kaul Singh.