Not using forest land for industrial park: Punjab CM

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 18

Categorically rejecting reports to the contrary, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday declared that not a single tree would be uprooted nor would an inch of forest land be taken by the government for the development of an industrial park at Mattewara, Ludhiana.

‘Waste won’t be discharged into sutlej’

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder allayed apprehensions that waste from the industrial park would be discharged into the Sutlej and said a modern common effluent treatment plant would be set up as per the latest norms issued by the Central Government.

There was no question of destroying the Mattewara forest, the Chief Minister said during his #AskCaptain Facebook live session. Statements made by certain people suggesting that the forest would be destroyed “are simply not true,” he said, adding that the government had taken 955 acres of the Animal Husbandry and Horticulture Department and gram panchayat. The acquired land did not include an inch of the 2,300 acres of the Mattewara forest, he said.

Capt Amarinder also allayed apprehensions that waste from the industrial park would be discharged into the Sutlej and said a modern common effluent treatment plant would be set up as per the latest Central Government norms. The objective behind the planned industrial park was to create a vibrant industrial estate where people of Ludhiana and nearby areas could get jobs, he added.