Kathmandu, Oct 11: The local residents have protested the operation of a crusher plant illegally by the Chinese company ‘China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd.’ near the local Tinau river at Tinau Rural Municipality-3 in Palpa district. The plant was set up around one month ago. The local residents of the rural municipality protested against the construction company citing it violated the safety standards set by the government, said the rural municipality chairperson Prem Shrestha.
Plant operates without IEE and EIA
The construction company, which works on the Siddhababa tunnel way, set up the crusher plant by breaching the set standards, said Shrestha.
The local people have been protesting the plant stating it has affected the environment. The plant has been brought into operation without even carrying out the initial environmental examination (IEE) and the environmental impact assessment (EIA), claimed Shrestha.
The crusher plant has been set up around a local forest, a suspension bridge and a concrete bridge within 50 metres of the Tinau river and 100 metres of the Siddhartha Highway, he said. According to the federal and provincial government’s provision, a crusher plant cannot be operated within 500 metres of a bridge and a highway.
“After the locals filed an application demanding a prompt closure of the plant, we asked the company to submit an IEE or EIA report. But they did not have any. Thereafter, we asked them to provide the documents approved by the respective authorities. The documents are not found even in the government bodies,” he said.
“Later, a tripartite discussion was held between the construction company, the local people and the rural municipality. As per the agreement, we gave the company some time to proceed with the work that should not harm the environment, after submitting required documents.”
Now, the local people are dissatisfied with the new arrangements, and have launched a new protest against the crusher plant on social media. They blamed the construction with extracting river materials against the tripartite agreement.
The construction company has been using heavy equipment including excavators and tipper trucks against the agreement to stop operation until the document of approval is provided, they maintained.
According to the government directives related to riverbeds excavation, the use of excavators and loaders is prohibited to extract river materials from sensitive areas like the national forests, parks, reserves, buffer zones and the protected areas and the Chure.
