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Ludhiana | NGT panel to submit report on industrial park on Sutlej floodplains in 2 months
Anticipating a threat to the environment, members of Ludhiana -based NGOs filed a petition the proposed industrial park on Sutlej floodplains
Acting on a petition filed against the proposed industrial park on Sutlej floodplains near Mattewara Forest, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has constituted a four-member committee and asked it to submit a “factual report” within two months.
Led by the deputy commissioner, the committee includes Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) officials and a district forest officer. The orders were issued on April 8 and the next hearing is scheduled on July 17.
The petition was filed by a group of NGOs under the banner of the Public Action Committee (PAC) for Mattewara and Sutlej River. The NGOs have cited an anticipated threat to the environment, Sutlej river and the Mattewara forest area.
Convening at the Circuit House, PAC members, including Kapil Arora, Kuldeep Khaira, Jaskirat Singh, Amandeep Bains, Col CM Lakhanpal (retd), and Gagnish Khurana, said, “Earlier too, a petition in this regard had been filed with the NGT, which the green tribunal had disposed of in May 2021 with directions to the chief secretary to take remedial action to save the floodplains.”
“As the authorities failed to take any action and the state government moved forward to establish an industrial park, another petition was filed through advocate HC Arora. Now, the court has constituted a committee to submit a factual report,” said the PAC members.
Arora said, “As per a report submitted by the district mining office pertaining to another case, the width of the floodplains is around 11km from the river. The government is planning to establish an industrial park within a kilometre radius from the river. The departments are not even sharing information about the project under the Right To Information Act.”
“ The state government has notified an amendment in the master plan of Ludhiana and changed the land use of the “no manufacturing zone” along Sutlej River in Sekhowal, Ghari Fazal, and Salempur among other areas for development of the industrial park. However, major breaches were reported at ‘Dhusi Bandh’ in Garhi Fazal and Mattewara in 2010, 2016 and 2019,” said Khaira, alleging that the project will not only disturb the ecology, but will also pollute the river and destroy the Mattewara forests.
The environmental activists said they are hopeful that the NGT will scrap the project once the committee files a report.
The state government has proposed that an industrial park be established on 1,000 acres of government and panchayat land in Haidar Nagar, Sekhowal, Salempur, Sailkiana and Machian Kalan villages. GLADA had also acquired around 400 acres of land for the project.
Attempts were made to reach GLADA chief administrator Sandeep Kumar, but he remained unavailable.
Any construction on floodplains will be at risk of developer: NGT
Asserting that the ecology of a floodplain zone should not be damaged, the NGT has said that any construction on the floodplains will be at the risk of the developer.
PAC members have alleged that the government has already started a project to construct a road on floodplains.
