A fortnight after he described the textile park project at Mattewara as “ambitious scheme” aimed at attracting investments and opening new vistas of employment for state’s youth in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday did a volte face by scrapping the project and declaring that no industrial unit would be set up near Mattewara forests.
Chief Minister Mann also put blame on his predecessor Capt Amarinder Singh for giving the nod to the project envisaged by the Union Government for setting up the Textile Park over 1000 acres on this land, “without even thinking about its pros and cons”.
Mann announced the decision to scrap the proposed textile park project at Koom Kalan village near Mattewara forest in Ludhiana district following a meeting with a seven-member delegation of the Public Action Committee (PAC), the NGO spearheading the agitation against the mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel Park along the Sutlej river.
The decision came a day after thousands of social activists, environmentalists, farmers, students, NGOs, politicians, and many others reached Ludhiana to protest against the proposed textile park. People from all walks of life — young and old, men and women — had come together to hold a massive protest at the project site to send a strong message to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led State Government.
Notably, in June this year, Chief Minister Mann had claimed in the Vidhan Sabha that no river pollution will be allowed in the proposed textile park at Koom Kalan, and all environmental clearances and norms as fixed by the Centre and state pollution control boards will be adhered to.
While responding to a call attention motion moved by party MLA Hardeep Singh Mundian, the Chief Minister had also stated that the “ambitious scheme will help in attracting investments on the one hand and opening new vistas of employment for the youth on another”.
Now, the ruling AAP has been facing stiff opposition over the issue, especially for its “contrary stand”. When it was in opposition, AAP’s entire top leadership had strongly opposed the project, and now after coming to power, it was going ahead with the same instead of cancelling it.
Making the announcement after his meeting with the PAC delegation, Mann made it clear that no industrial unit will be set up at the proposed site near the Mattewara forests for saving the precious water resources and woods of the state.
“I will 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 in them,” he said.
Lamenting that the previous government approved the project without considering its pros and cons, Mann said that the proposed project site is located near Mattewara forests and on floodplains of river Satluj but the Capt Amarinder Government totally ignored the castigating effects which this project will have on the environment and state’s ecology.
“Apart from cutting of trees, this project would have also lead to massive pollution in the river water thereby jeopardising the human life along with flora and fauna in the region,” he said adding that when voted to power, AAP Government minutely studied the project and found that this will disturb the ecological balance of the area.
He said: “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, Punjab government will preserve these ‘green arteries’ of the state by all means.”
The Chief Minister said that the State Government is ready to allot any new chunk of land for this proposed Textile park with the condition that it doesn’t pollute the waters of the state. Mann reiterated the state government’s firm commitment to check the environmental pollution for making Punjab clean, green and pollution free.
CAPT RUES SCRAPPING OF PROJECT
Rueing the scrapping of the project, Punjab’s former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday termed it as the “most regressive and short-sighted decision”.
“You don’t throw away the baby with the bath water,” he remarked in a statement while reacting to the government decision. Questioning the diatribe launched against the project, he clarified that the textile park was not to come up within the Mattewara forest area as was being said, but outside it. “All environmental concerns had been addressed according to the United Nations guidelines and only then, the park was approved.
Capt Amarinder regretted that the AAP Government, after initially deciding to go ahead with the project, had scrapped it just because some people opposed it without any justification or without any technical and scientific knowledge about the environment.