The Joint Action
Committee (JAC) of Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM), Punjab Pollution
Control Committee (PPCC), Mission Aagaaz, Kheti Virasat Mission,
Tarksheel Society and International Welfare Society has written to the
Union and state governments to drop their plan to auction the canal
colony of the Irrigation department to construct a five star hotel and
commercial complexes.
Communiqués
addressed to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister AK
Antony, the Union Minister of Environment and Forests Jayanthi
Natarajan and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal were also dispatched
to draw their attention.
The Punjab
Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) and PUDA have also planned a
five star hotel-cum-convention centre and commercial complexes at the
site.
PS Bhatti of the
PPCC said he has urged the government not to proceed with the plan. He
requested the Union government to intervene in the matter. Members of
the NGOs are of the view that with the dismantling of the kothis
belonging to the British era, the region would lose their architecture
forever as well as the decades old trees and vegetation grown in them.
Mission Aagaaz
executive director Deepak Babbar said high-rise buildings near the
cantonment could also pose security threat. He said it was for the
second time in the city that a huge forest cover would be put to axe.
Earlier, a dense cover of 452 trees at Dr Vidya Sagar Mental Hospital
was chopped to pave way for a five star hotel and a mall.
He said while only a
small percentage of the residents visit shopping malls and
multiplexes, everyone benefits from city's green cover in many ways.
He said a half-hearted approach had led to the state losing its green
cover fast. He said the state was now left with only three per cent
forest cover.
Environmentalist
Gurbhej Singh said the decision was also a mockery of the resolution
passed in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, states “this House strongly recommends
to the State Government to take immediate and effective steps for
bringing more area under forest cover, in order to curb the dreadful
and fatal affects of the ever-increasing pollution in the State”. He
said development should not be at the cost of city's green cover. He
said these British era kothis could be turned into hotels and resorts
for tourists to stay without demolishing them or removing green cover.
Green brigade
Amritsar Vikas Manch
(AVM), Punjab Pollution Control Committee (PPCC), Mission Aagaaz,
Kheti Virasat Mission, Tarksheel Society and International Welfare
Society form a joint action committee to stop the auction of the canal
colony of the irrigation department for a five-star hotel and
commercial complexes.
‘Turn kothis into
heritage hotels’
These British-era
kothis could be turned into hotels and resorts for tourists to stay
without demolishing them or removing the green cover.
— Gurbhej Singh,
environmentalist
