Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced 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 for avoiding any sort of water pollution in them,” announced Mann after a meeting with the Public Action Committee on Mattewara forest.
The CM bemoaned that his predecessor Captain Amarinder Singh had given nod to the project envisaged by the Union government for setting up a textile park over 1000 acres on this land, without even thinking about its pros and cons. Mann said that the proposed project site is located near the Mattewara forest and on floodplains of river Satluj but the Captain Amarinder government totally ignored the castigating effects that this project will have on the environment and ecology of the state. The CM said that apart from cutting trees, this project would have also led to massive pollution in the river water thereby jeopardising human life along with flora and fauna in the region.
The CM said that his government minutely studied the project when voted to power and found that this will disturb the ecological balance of the area. Mann 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, the CM said that the Punjab government will preserve these ‘green arteries’ of the state by all means.
Mann 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. The CM reiterated the firm commitment of the state government to check the environmental pollution for making Punjab clean, green and pollution-free.