Alagir hosts rally against construction of cement plant

About three hundred residents of North Ossetia have staged a rally against the construction of a cement plant in Alagir. The protesters adopted a resolution that demands to cancel all the legal acts, allowing the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) to build the plant.

The document with ten thousand signatures collected against the construction of the cement plant, will be sent to the head of North Ossetia Taimuraz Mamsurov and its copies - to the Russian President, Prime Minister and Alexander Khloponin, the authorized envoy in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), said Vladimir Chelokhsaev, the organizer of the rally.

The protest action was coordinated with the authorities. The organizers claimed about two thousand participants, but only three hundred came.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that residents of North Ossetia hold regular protests against the activities of the UMMC in the republic. The construction of a cement plant in Alagir was suspended in December 2012; while the metallurgical factory "Electrozink" was forced to adopt a programme of measures aimed to reduce hazardous emissions into the atmosphere; however, according to members of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, factory bosses fail to fulfil it in its entirety.

Today, the organizers and participants of the rally said, referring to the head of North Ossetia, that the plant "will still be built" in Alagir.

Vladimir Kanteev, a participant of the rally, said that he opposes the construction of any cement plant. "We are reproached for not allowing implementing any other projects. We state in our resolution that a greenhouse complex can be built in these seventy hectares of land, which will create the same number of news jobs as the plant," said Kanteev.

Atsamaz Khadikov, a sanitary doctor, was also present at the rally in Alagir. According to his story, no one believes the promises of the UMMC, and "no one here wants these 500 new jobs at the cost of life and health."

Tomorrow, on the International Children's Day, a picket against "Electrozink" will be held in Victory Square in Vladikavkaz.