Villagers oppose Harish Cement plant, halt work, India

Villagers oppose Harish Cement plant, halt work, India
24 August 2010


Hundreds of people opposed to the setting up of a cement plant at Keran village in Mandi district, HP, India today forced the representative of Harish Cement Company to go back and blocked Sundernagar-Keran road for nearly five hours.

The villagers, many of them women, did not allow the representative of the company to move into the village. Sitting MLA and former minister, Roop Singh Thakur, hailing from the same village, strongly supported the setting of cement plant but the villagers were dead against it.

As soon as the residents of village Keran, where land was being acquired for mining for the proposed cement plant, came to know that the representatives of Harish Cement Company arrived to execute the work, they assembled at the site and blocked the road outside the village.

The residents were raising slogans against the cement project and the district administration. They claimed to have filed cases challenging environment clearances to the project and also challenged the notification of land acquisition for the project in the High Court. The villagers alleged they did not want to give land for the cement project but the government was bent upon setting up the plant.
Published under Cement News