Shillong, Nov. 3: Employees of the government cement plant located at Mawmluh in Sohra in East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya met chief minister Mukul Sangma today to seek his intervention in clearing their salaries.
Over 400 employees of Mawmluh Cherra Cement Limited (MCCL) have not got their salaries since July when an interim ban on coal mining by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) forced the factory to stop production of cement. Prior to the ban, the almost 45-year-old plant used to produce around 250 metric tonnes of cement per day.
Moreover, the NGT’s eastern zone bench in Calcutta, headed by Justice Pratap Kumar Ray, judicial member of the tribunal, had last week directed the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board to ensure that the plant should not start operating until all pollution control equipment were installed to the satisfaction of the board.
With this latest intervention by the green court, it appears that the cement plant will have to wait longer to see better days.
The Mawmluh Cherra Cements Employees Union, whose members met Sangma today, said if correct measures were taken, the plant could see better days ahead.
The NGT bench also directed the pollution control board to ensure that all lime kilns operating without consent should mandatorily apply and obtain consent from the board within three months. “If they failed to obtain consent to operate or if consent is declined within three months, the board shall issue closure notice and seal the premises immediately after three months,” the order stated.
The bench has also directed the state health secretary to submit an action plan to ensure that all the 23 red category hospitals, which according to an NGT report are violating the Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998, strictly implement its provisions. The action plan has to be submitted by the next date of hearing, which has been fixed on February 3, 2015.
The tribunal also directed the “secretary of local bodies” to submit an action plan for disposal of solid wastes generated under the six municipal towns of the state — Shillong, Tura, Jowai, Williamnagar, Baghmara and Resubelpara — by the next date of hearing.
