By IANS,
Gandhinagar: The union environment ministry’s direction for immediate stoppage of work on Nirma’s proposed Rs.1,400-crore cement plant notwithstanding, the agitating farmers’ march to Gandhinagar continued Monday.
The march will enter Ahmedabad Tuesday.
A spokesperson said here Monday that the march, which began from Doliya village in Mahuva March 3 under the leadership of Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Kanubhai Kalsariya, will not be called off.
The proposed project at Mahuva sub-division in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar has become the subject of a major tussle between the corporate giant and the farmers, with NGOs, Gandhians and even the Congress pitching in with their support.
The union ministry had Friday issued notice to Nirma as to why the environmental clearance granted to it should not be cancelled.
“The decision came after a team of experts from the ministry visited the proposed plant’s site and found that the area included wetlands,” the notice said.
Nirma, however, countered the notice, saying that the ministry cannot bind the company to stop construction.
The company, in its reply also said that its assumption of jurisdiction was not only uncalled for, unwarranted and unjust, but was clearly an attempt to overreach the Supreme Court’s order.