Saving Aravallis may become poll issue, signature drive launched

Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service
Faridabad, March 18

A group of social activists has launched a signature campaign against the recent amendment brought by the Haryana Government to reduce the area falling under preserved forest in Faridabad and Gurugram districts.

The campaign aims to get signatures of at least one lakh residents of Faridabad.

A spokesperson of the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Manch (BVM), an organisation working in the field of exposing or opposing corruption in public places here, said that the signature campaign launched a few days ago had already got the signatures of 15,000 residents.

Seeking a tough law to ensure protection of green cover in the NCR, Varun Sheokand and Satinder Singh, associated with the move, said that the PLPA would be taken up as an important election issue this time. “We will ask people to vote for those who support the drive,” they said.

The total number of signatures that the manch intends to get is one lakh in the next three weeks, the BVM spokesperson claimed.

Admitting that though the Supreme Court had annulled the PLPA amendment in its order on March 8, Dr Brahm Dutt, a senior member of the BVM, said that saving the forests of the NCR was a much bigger fight and it required the direct involvement of the masses.

Welcoming the apex court’s decision, he said the people must associate themselves with such a movement as the Aravallis were the lifeline of the NCR, especially Faridabad and Gurugram districts.

He announced that the people of the region would not let the government or the builder mafia turn the area into a concrete jungle for their vested interests.

“I have signed the paper aimed at forcing the government to withdraw the PLPA amendment,” said AK Gaur, a senior citizen here.

Alleging hundreds of illegal constructions in the form of banquet gardens, farmhouses and hotels, he said the Aravallis had already been a victim of huge destruction at the hands of the land mafia enjoying the patronage of those in power.

15,000 signatures received

• The campaign aims to get signatures of at least one lakh residents of Faridabad
• A spokesperson of the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Manch, an organisation working in the field of exposing or opposing corruption in public places here, said that the signature campaign launched a few days ago had already got the signatures of 15,000 residents.