Sangrur farmers up in arms against plan to set up cement plant
The case is sub judice in the Supreme Court. Villagers have highlight “anomalies” in the issuance of ‘change of land use’ certificate to the company.
Opposing the plan to establish a cement plant in Deh Kalan village of Sangrur district, residents of the village and nearby areas have been campaigning against the project, apprising people about its “hazardous impact” on health as well as the environment.
Among those worried are the residents of Rasaldar Channa village, Naik Basti (a residential colony), Vasant Valley School (falling under Ladda village), Bangawali, Ladda, Thales and Deh Kalan as according to them they will be the worst affected once the cement plant comes up. It has been learnt that people of these areas have already passed a resolution to oppose the project.
Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, in presence of then PWD minister Vijay Inder Singla, had laid the foundation stone of the Punjab Cement Plant (subsidiary of Shree Cement Limited) in Deh Kalan in 2021.
Raghubir Singh, 75, of Mohammadpur Rasaldar Channa village said that the impact of having a cement plant on the health of people in nearby areas could be gauged from the fact that a pinch of raw cement mixed with ghee smeared on chapati is generally used to kill troubling rodents, inviting slow death.
Even parents of some 1,800 students of Vasant Valley School, in whose vicinity the cement plant site is there, are worried.
The case is sub judice. Villagers had approached the Punjab and Haryana high court, challenging the change of land use (CLU) certificate issued to the plant, but the court had rejected the plea. In April this year, the petitioners reached the apex court that issued notices to the environment ministry, Punjab government, Punjab Pollution Control Board, STP of HUID, Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion and other stakeholders, seeking their response.
A farmer, Harjit Singh, along with others in the vicinity, said, “Ex-attorney general for India and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi is fighting the case of Sangrur farmers. Farmers are often told to refrain from sowing water-guzzling PUSA-44 paddy variety to save groundwater, but the state government has permitted the cement plant to extract 3,50,000 litres per day of groundwater.”
He sought an inquiry into the issuance of the CLU to set up a plant on the agriculture land, notified in Sangrur’s master plan.
Though the approved site of the cement plant falls under the dark zone category (a zone wherein the water level is within danger zone) of Punjab, the government has already given permission to extract 3,50,000 litres per day of groundwater.
Moreover, as per the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) rules, no industry falling under the red category can be set up within the 300-metre radius of any school. Besides, the plant site, as per the government records which are available with the HT, falls under the agriculture zone, implying that only green and orange types of units are allowed to be established here. The PPCB rules stipulate that a cement factory comes under the red category.
However, tweaking the rules, a committee constituted by the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Board had ruled that the red category industry could be set up in rural agriculture zone within the notified master plan. As per the available documents, the former Punjab CM (ex officio chairman of the board) had given ex post facto approval to allow red category industry to be set up in agriculture zone.
Based on this, the senior town planner (STP) of the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had on December 13, 2021 granted the change of land use certificate to the company.
When contacted, Sangrur district town planner Parvinder refused to comment on the issue given that the matter is sub-judice. Similarly, Kanwalpreet Kaur Brar, director, town and country planning, also refused on the similar grounds.
It is pertinent to mention that the cement production in India is one of the highest-emitting industries, accounting for approximately 7% in global CO2 emissions.