MUZAFFARGARH: A district administration team led by DCO Hafiz Shoukat Ali on Saturday visited Verar Sipra and other villages and met a number of people to allay their concerns about the coal power plants project.

Residents of these villages have been opposing selection of their land for power plants. The government had earlier sent a team for technical study of the land selected for the installation of two 660MW coal-fired power plants in Kot Addu tehsil.

Although the DCO said cases registered against more than 150 people for attacking a team of surveyors last month had been withdrawn, the people of Mauza Budh, Qasba Gujrat, Verar Sipra and Mahmoodkot stuck to their guns.

MPA Alamdar Qureshi asked people to give permission for survey which would be just an initial process and its report would be sent to the authorities concerned in Lahore. The gathering was in no mood to relent and responded by chanting slogans against the ruling party.

Meanwhile, the DCO has written a letter to senior functionaries including the Dera Ghazi Khan commissioner and asked them to send a team for technical study of the land selected for the installation of the two power plants. The plants are to be installed by KAPCO and CMEC PAK GEN.

The letter said the Punjab government directed to arrange four pieces of land including Mauza Rakh Khan Pur (government area) for coal-fired power project under the supervision of additional chief secretary, energy department and senior member of Board of Revenue and managing director power Punjab Development Board along with construction companies. A physical study showed that two pieces of land were required -- one for KAPCO plant at Mauza Rao Bela Sharki and Verar Sipra and other for China Machinery Engineering Corporation PAK GEN (Pvt) Limited at Mauza Gujrat and Verar Sipra in Kot Addu.

He said the notification under section 4 of Land Acquisition Act of 1894 of both schemes had been published on June 22 with the clarification that the land had never been recommended on the grounds of pick and choose. He said now affected persons had submitted their objections under Section 5 A of Land Acquisition Act 1894.

He said the objections raised by them were of technical nature and recommendations could not be made without advice of technical experts under Section 5-A2 of this Act. “For these projects 6,000 acres had been earmarked which belong to private people while nearby swathes of sand deserts which belong to the state have not been allocated for the project.”

People, mostly farmers, are taking out protest rallies daily to register their concerns about the project.

They said they would march on Lahore and launch a movement as they were already bearing pollution of three thermal power plants and Parco in Muzaffargarh.

Published in Dawn October 4th, 2015

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