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| November 15, 2005 | Tuesday | Shawwal 12, 1426 |
Punjab govt fails to shift industry from city
FAISALABAD, Nov 14: The Punjab government plan to shift industrial units from populated areas of the city seems to have failed due to lukewarm attitude of the authorities concerned and the industrialists.
Around 500 units operating in congested residential areas of the city are not only creating health problems for the residents but have become a permanent nuisance for the government agencies. The administration had imposed a ban on discharge of effluents on open places. Cases were registered during the last couple of months against industrialists, including a big group of companies, but all efforts in this regard proved futile.
Residents in these areas have developed lung and other diseases due to smoke being emitted from the chimneys of chemical and textile units.
The trend of setting up units in congested areas is also on the rise due to negligence of the authorities concerned. No step has been taken by the local councils during their four-year tenure to stop this menace. The new town administrations also look helpless.
The much publicized project of the Punjab government with the private partnership to set up two industrial cities, Value Addition City and Faisalabad Industrial City, at two different sites also failed to attract the industrialists whose factories are operating in the city. A few of them had invested in the plan while 90 per cent of the plots were sold to new industries, including those from Karachi, Lahore and abroad.
The provincial government decided a couple of years ago to set up new factories and shift the existing units from the city with the help of private sector and formed the Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) on the basis of public-private partnership. However, the plan could not materialize.
The proposed Value Addition City, near Khurrianwala, attracted new investors instead of industrialists whose units had already been functioning in the city. Similarly, the project of Faisalabad Industrial City could not be launched due to reasons best known to the FIEDMC authorities.
Sources told this correspondent that the provincial government had provided Rs1.5 billion to FIEDMC with equity of Rs35 million. This huge amount is being utilized by the Board of Directors and sources are of the view that a huge sum had so far been spent on publicity, which was nothing but wastage of the amount.
They said both these projects had 300 plots while 483 units were operating in different parts of the city. If these units were forced to set up their factories in the proposed industrial cities, the plan could have materialized.
The Wasa record shows that it has 276 industrial consumers, including 81 big textile mills, in the city which are using the water and drainage facilities and playing havoc with the health of citizens. Majority of the factories are operating on Maqbool Road, Nishatabad, Sheikhupura Road, Jhang Road, Factory Area, Ghulam Muhammadabad, Canal Road, Razabad and Samundri Road.
Sources said the Punjab governor, exercising the powers of the Punjab Industries (Control on Establishment and Enlargement) Act 1963, made it clear in Section 4 of a notification that each district government may declare residential areas as no industry zone.
In this scenario, the Punjab government about three years ago issued a policy guideline to each district government for constitution of special committee for the purpose with the district nazim as its chairman.
The DCO, EDOs of revenue, finance, community development and works, DO of environment and representatives of trade bodies were made members of the committee.
All these instructions, rules, regulations and guidelines were totally ignored by the district governments and tehsil municipal administrations.
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