While the Punjab Government is on toes to ensure the state gets a textile park under Prime Minister Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM-MITRA) scheme at Kum Kalan area near Ludhiana, a group of activists and farmers have been urging to shift the park from where it is currently planned.
Following Government officials’ recent plans to acquire another 250 acres in Kum Kalan for the mega textile park project, the members of the Public Action Committee (PAC) for Sutlej and Mattewara, along with the members of farmers’ unions, met Lal Chand Kataru chak, Forest and Wildlife Preservation Minister, in this regard and urged him to shift this prospective park site in Kum Kalan area away from Sutlej floodplains.
The PAC members also submitted a memorandum to the Minister in this regard.
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The activists have concerns to save the protected forests— Mattewara forest, Jaspal Kadar forest and Haidarnagar Salempur forest— on the floodplain of Sutlej from imminent disaster as the mega textile park is being planned to be constructed between these forests.
PAC believes that these forests are floodplain forests and a common heritage of Punjab. Their survival depends on the survival of the floodplain itself, which will get destroyed if the industry is allowed in the area.
The memorandum said that Mattewara accounts for the maximum biodiversity in Central Punjab. The project will be a disaster for the biodiversity of the region.
