NEW DELHI, July 11: Reversing the preceding Amarinder Singh government’s decision, the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab on Monday announced cancellation of approval to a textile park project envisaged by the central government in forest areas at Mattewara.
Mann announced that his government would not allow the proposed textile unit to come up near Mattewara forest. “I would categorically like to announce that not only in Mattewara but the state government will not allow any industry to come up on the river banks of Punjab to avoid any sort of water pollution…” said Mann after a meeting with the Public Action Committee on Mattewara forest.
Later, PAC member Jaskirat Singh said the chief minister criticised former CM Amarinder Singh for giving the nod to the proposed 1,000-acre textile park project envisaged by the Union government.
The CM said the site for the project was located near Mattewara forest and on the floodplains of River Satluj but the Amarinder Singh-led government ignored the environmental and ecological costs of the initiative. Mann reportedly said the project would not only lead to water pollution in the area but also entail felling a considerable number of trees in the vicinity.
“The chief minister said… his government minutely studied the project and found that this will disturb the ecological balance of the area. He said that keeping in view the repercussions of this project on the environment and human life, the state government has decided that no industrial unit will be set up on this land. Rather, Bhagwant Mann said the Punjab government would preserve these green arteries of the state by all means,” Jaskirat Singh said. He added that Mann instead proposed to allot any new chunk of land for the textile park provided it does not lead to water pollution.
Incidentally, Mann when in the opposition had criticised the Mattewara textile park project in the wake of strong opposition from the local villagers and environmentalists when the Singh government accorded approval to the central government’s proposal for the textile park and had agreed to allocate land for the project.
(Manas Dasgupta)