With demands for scrapping the textile project near eco-fragile Mattewara forest growing louder, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced that no industrial unit will be set up at the proposed site to save the precious water resources and forest cover.
“I would like to categorically 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 in them,” announced the Chief Minister after a meeting with the Public Action Committee on Mattewara forest.
Mann blamed former CM Captain Amarinder Singh for giving the nod to the project envisaged by the Union government to set up a textile park spread over 1,000 acres near Mattewara forests and on floodplains of river Satluj.
The Chief Minister said that apart from cutting of trees, this project would have also led to massive pollution in the river water, thereby jeopardising human life along with the flora and fauna in the region.
The CM said that when voted to power, 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.
He said that the state government is ready to allot any new chunk of land for the proposed textile park with the condition that it doesn’t pollute the waters of the state.
The decision was taken after the ongoing agitation by activists of Public Action Committee (PAC) to save Mattewara forest gained strength with support pouring in from the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), the SGPC, farmers’ bodies, in addition to a large number of NGOs working to save the environment.
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