Ludhiana: Shiromani Akali Dal supports stir against Mattewara textile park project

LUDHIANA: The Shiromani Akali (Dal) on Tuesday announced its support for the July 10 protest of a 50-NGO public action committee so that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) scraps the Mattewara textile park project deemed harmful to a forest and the floodplains of the Satluj river.
SAD’s former minister Maheshinder Singh Grewal claimed that his party had joined forces with the environment activists to oppose the AAP government’s decision to “cut off the green lungs of Ludhiana”. Accusing chief minister Bhagwant Mann of betraying the people of Ludhiana, Grewal said: “AAP members, including Mann, opposed this project while in opposition. Before the assembly elections, they had also accepted the green manifesto of the public action committee, which had called for eco-tourism projects. However, after coming to power, AAP has made a U-turn on this issue.”
Asked what the government should build if not a textile park, Grewal said: “An eco-friendly project should be encouraged to protect the area’s fragile ecology. Allowing a textile park to come up in the area will not only harm the biodiversity of the protected forest but also pollute the Sutlej river with toxic discharge of those cloth factories. Excessive construction activity will change the character of the area and hamper the recharging of groundwater.”
Grewal said it was shocking that despite protests from the farmers, village panchayats, and environmentalists, the state government was going ahead with the project. He said: “The farmers’ displeasure is understandable as thousands of them still depend upon the Sutlej river for their drinking water needs. The forestland on which the textile project is to be set up is also the only source of livelihood for many families.”