Senior executives of Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd and Lafarge Umiam Mining Private Ltd at a news conference in Shillong on Thursday. Telegraph picture

Shillong, May 17: Cement manufacturing giant Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd today said it was adopting a standardised approach to sustainable development by adhering to various environmental norms in its operations across the world, including the one at Nongtrai village in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district.

Lafarge Umiam Mining Pvt Ltd (LUMPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd., has been engaging in mining limestone from Nongtrai village under Shella in an area covering over 100 hectares since March 2003.

It also has an additional land of 37.6 hectares for infrastructure and other activities for transporting crushed limestone of 2 million tonnes annually through a 17km (7km lies in Indian territory and the rest in Bangladesh) conveyor belt to feed the Lafarge Surma Cement Plant at Chhatak, Bangladesh.

“Our operations here are carried out by adhering to environmental norms like we are doing in Europe. This helps in promoting sustainable development,” Tarek Elba, the chief executive officer of Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd, told reporters here.

The assertion comes a few days after Union minister of state (independent charge) for environment and forest Jayanti Natarajan told Parliament that during the past three years several environmental offenders, including Lafarge Umiam Pvt Ltd, were booked by her ministry.

The other offenders include ONGC Limited, Oil India Limited (OIL), Hindustan Oil Exploration Company, Assam Roofing Limited, North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited, Meghalaya Energy Corporation and others.

Narayan Sharma, the vice-president and director of Lafarge Umiam Mining Pvt Ltd, said the company had released Rs 3 crore in July 2010 to the Meghalaya government for planting 4,00,000 trees in 20 years. The 4,00,000 trees would replace the 935 trees felled at limestone mining sites, he added.

Lafarge Umiam was asked to stop its mining operations and apply for forest clearance in April 2007. The Supreme Court granted an interim clearance to resume mining activities in November 2007 but withdrew it in February 2010. In July 2011, the apex court granted the company permission to recommence operations at Nongtrai but attached a set of conditions. In February this year, the company obtained the final clearance from the Union ministry of environment and forests.

Lafarge has deposited an initial amount of Rs 41.2 crore towards Special Purpose Vehicle, a government agency, which is supposed to oversee the utilisation of funds for developing social sectors like health and education in areas located near the mining quarries at Nongtrai.

Thereafter, it continues to deposit in the SPV funds at the rate of Rs 90 per tonne. A sum of Rs 12.5 crore (Rs 125 million) had been deposited in the SPV till February this year since mining operations resumed in August 2011.

The company has also deposited Rs 72.7 crore as Net Present Value, which is the monetary worth of forest land diverted for non-forest purposes.