Over 5,000 farmers on Thursday submitted a memorandum to chief minister Narendra Modi demanding cancellation of permission given to Nirma Ltd for setting up a cement plant in Bhavnagar district
Over 5,000 farmers on Thursday submitted a memorandum to chief minister Narendra Modi demanding cancellation of permission given to Nirma Ltd for setting up a cement plant in Bhavnagar district.
Nirma Ltd is building up a cement plant with capacity of 1.91 million tonnes per annum, along with its captive power
and coke oven plant, near Padhiarka village in Mahuva taluka of Bhavnagar district.
Farmers, from the villages in vicinity of the upcoming project, under BJP MLA Dr Kanubhai Kalsariya, took out a rally
on March 3 that reached Ahmedabad on Wednesday, in protest against the Nirma plant.
Kalsariya, who has gone against the party line in protesting against the project, said he was not "satisfied" with talks with the chief minister who "refused" to give any "commitment" to the farmers who had walked over 350km from Dholiya village in Mahuva to Gandhinagar in a bid to save their agriculture land.
"Modi said that the matter was in court and whatever it decides, the government would abide by it. He did not give any commitment to farmers," said Kalsariya while addressing media persons after meeting the CM in his office in assembly building.
This is not only the question of farmers of Mahuva. Voice of farmers across Gujarat was being suppressed and their
land was being given to the industries without consulting them, he said.
The Mahuva MLA said that the agitation against the government policy of "promoting" industries would continue and the farmers would take it to other parts of the state.
Besides seeking immediate cancellation of permission given to the plant, the memorandum also said that the land and water bodies were natural resources which cannot be acquired only to be given to industries.
The farmers also want the state government to "ask" the Centre to "cancel" the setting up of a nuclear power plant in Talaja taluka of Bhavnagar.
Over 200 people of Mithivirdi, Jaspara, Mandva and Khadarpara of Talaja taluka of Bhanvnagar also joined the rally of farmers opposing the 6000MW nuclear power project, proposed to be set up in the area.
They also demanded that the area surrounding Badarkha village in Ahmedabad district should not be declared as a pharmaceutical zone and an upcoming chemical zone in Bhal region in Khambhat be "suspended".
The farmers are protesting against the cement plant alleging that if allowed to be completed the plant would destroy their agriculture and animal husbandry, besides causing irreparable damage to the environment.
Nirma was given 268 hectares of land for setting up of the cement plant besides more than 3,000 hectare for mining lease in the surrounding areas of the district.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the notice issued by the Union Ministry of Environment
and Forests (MoEF) to Nirma Ltd to halt work at the cement plant at Mahuva in Bhavnagar district.
The MoEF on March 12 had ordered "permanent suspension of work" with regard to the plant.
Meanwhile, chief minister Narendra Modi in a statement issued with regard to the memorandum said that his government was always in "favour" of the farmers.
"The entire issue (of Nirma cement plant) was sub-judice. And the state government has to follow a judicial procedure and act according to law," Modi said in a statement.
He further said that because of the agriculture-centric policy of the state government in the last decade, the agriculture growth rate of Gujarat has remained at 9.6%.
The government was "committed" towards farmers becoming partners in the social development of the state, Modi
added.
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