GUWAHATI, May 31 � Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has requested Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to examine the issue of granting permission to a private sector company for setting up a factory in a residential area at Gauripur under North Guwahati Police Station.
The Union Minister said in his letter to the Chief Minister that he had received a memorandum from Uttar Kamrup Janakalyan Mancha alleging the issuance of permission to M/s Topcem India for a cement factory in a residential area, thus violating the master plan. �I believe that this has been done without the Master Plan being changed.
�I request you to please have the matter examined and issue appropriate directions,� said the Minister in his letter to the Chief Minister.
The Uttar Kamrup Janakalyan Mancha has alleged that the cement company M/s Topcem India has acquired a large tract of land in the village and even �encroached upon the land of the village cremation ground.�
The said tract of land is in the heart of the village Sila-Gauripur and in the periphery of agricultural field, grazing ground, big government fisheries like the Ghorajan Beel, etc. Moreover, three lower primary schools, one high school, IIT-Guwahati, North Gauhati College, Kamrup District Civil Hospital and other office and institutions are there near the proposed complex of the cement factory, alleged the Samiti.
Around 500 families are living in the surrounding areas of the proposed cement factory complex, since time immemorial. The people of North Kamrup area are apprehensive of serious environmental degradation in the area. Certain other industrial units already granted permission in the area have been causing damage to the general environment of the area.
Significantly, the plot of land acquired by the cement company does not fall under industrial area, alleged the Mancha.
The Mancha also submitted memorandums to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is also the local MLA, on the issue.
Meanwhile, the Mancha has alleged that the local police have been harassing its office-bearers.
