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MLA Kotli, villagers protest near CM’s Jalandhar house amid row over CNG plant
Adampur MLA Sukhwinder Singh Kotli and Kandhala Guru village residents protest near CM Bhagwant Mann's residence against bio-CNG plant project, citing environmental concerns.
Congress’ Adampur MLA Sukhwinder Singh Kotli, along with residents of Kandhala Guru village, on Friday staged a protest near the Jalandhar residence of chief minister Bhagwant Mann, seeking scrapping of the bio-CNG plant project in the village.
They have been opposing the plant citing environmental issues. The protesters also forcefully stopped the construction work at the plant site.
Security personnel stopped the protesters who were heading towards the CM residence following which they squatted on the approach road and raised slogans against the state government as well as the district administration. Members of other political parties were also among the protesters.
Kotli said the protesters were trying to meet officials of the district administration for the past three days but the whole government machinery was busy “pleasing the CM” who was in Jalandhar till Friday morning.
“We first went to the deputy commissioner (DC) office but came to know that he was with the CM following which went to his residence. CM Mann is claiming to have been listening to the demands of the people of Majha and Doaba, but he is not ready to pay attention towards villagers’ demand regarding closure of the bio-CNG plant in Bhogpur,” Kotli said.
According to Kotli, the authorities concerned didn’t take no-objection certificate from the village panchayat for establishing the plant.
Des Raj, a panchayat member, said villagers initially thought that some private player might have acquired the land for real estate business. They came to know about the bio-CNG plant later, he added.
The villagers said the plant would affect the water, soil and air quality nearby.
Later, DC Himanshu Aggarwal met the protesters at the protest site and received their memorandum. He assured the protesters that the administration would look into the matter.
MLA Kotli said they would hold a meeting on Monday to decide their next course of action.
On July 21, villagers and farmer unions gathered in the gurdwara village where local bodies minister Balkar Singh, along with administration officials, met them and assured that the factory in the village would not start functioning.
