The Supreme Court today allowed French cement giant Lafarge to mine limestone in the forests of the East Khasi hills in Meghalaya. A special forest bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia also upheld the revised environmental clearances given to Lafarge by the Ministry of Environment and Forest. The bench also observed that it was satisfied with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) as it has taken a due diligence exercise. The special bench further said there were no reasons to go into the two environmental clearances given by the MOEF. The court had on May 10 reserved its judgement after hearing all the parties over the revised environmental clearance given to Lafarge for mining in the forest.The apex court had on February 5, 2010, stopped Lafarge from carrying out limestone mining in Meghalaya for its cement plant, saying mining in the environmentally-sensitive zone could not be allowed.The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) had given revised environmental clearance to Lafarge last April on the directions of the Supreme Court after finding the mining project fell in forest land.The USD 255 million Lafarge Surma Cement project at Chhatak, in Bangladesh, is wholly dependent on limestone extracted from the East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya. Limestone is transported from the Meghalaya project to Bangladesh via a 17 km-long conveyor belt.