MUZAFFARGARH: Succumbing to public protest, the district coordination officer has written a letter to the energy department additional chief secretary, Dera Ghazi Khan commissioner, power development managing director and senior member of Board of Revenue, asking them to send experts for technical study of the land selected for the installation of two 660MW coal-fired power plants in Mahmoodkot in Kot Addu tehsil.

The plants are being installed by Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) and CMEC PAK GEN.

DCO Hafiz Shoukat Ali has sought hearing of the objections raised by the affected people under Section 5-A of Land Acquisition Act 1894.

The DCO says in the letter that the Punjab government had ordered survey of four pieces of land, including Mauza Rakh Khanpur (government land) for installation of the coal-fired power project under the supervision of energy department, ACS and BoR senior member and Power Development Board MD.

Following a survey, two pieces of land were selected for the purpose and were acquired -- one at Mauza Rao Bela Sharki, Verar Sipra, for Kapco plant and the other at Mauza Gujrat for China Machinery Engineering Corporation PAK GEN (pvt) Limited, in Kot Addu.

He says the notification, issued under Section 4 of Land Acquisition Act 1894, of both schemes says the recommendation for acquiring the land was made on merit.

The objections raised by those affected by the land acquisition are of technical nature and under Section 5-A2 of the Act, recommendation for it could not be made without technical expert’s advice, he adds.

Dawn has learnt that the affected farmers have hoisted banners on local buses and vans, demanding Punjab government should shift the project to state land. The agitated farmers have also resorted to violence recently.

Last month, Mahmood Kot police had registered a case against 150 farmers for thrashing engineers and local revenue officials conducting survey on the project site.

District Police Officer Awais Ahmad said those who attacked the government teams would be arrested soon. Last year, Chief minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced setting up six coal-powered energy stations in Punjab, one of them in mauza Budh, Wairer Sipra, Mahmood Kot and four in Kot Addu tehsil.

For the purpose, 6,000 acres of land belonging to private owners was earmarked, ignoring the nearby barren state land that could have been used for the project. The decision forced the farmers to take out protest rallies on a daily basis and blocking Mehmood Kot Road. “This (land acquisition) has deprived me and my family of livelihood,” says Hasan Gabol, an affected farmer.

Many residents of Mauza Budh, Bhakker Noon, Wairer Sipra and Dhengana are also worried about the pollution the project would cause in the area. They apprehend that the pollution would affect more than 50,000 people living in these villages. Mauza Budh alone has a population of 25,000.

The worried residents say the planners should have considered the environmental impact of the project on such a large chunk of population.

They say they were already being affected by pollution being caused by three thermal power plants -- Kapco, AES (Lal Pir) and Muzaffargarh Thermal Power -- and these companies never acted according to the parameters of corporate social responsibility.

However, according to officials, the site was selected because of its proximity to railway station, power house and Muzaffargarh Canal.

The affected farmers also allege that the price paid to them for their land was lower than the market rates. They say the market price of their land was Rs2 million per acre, but they were offered only Rs600,000 per acre. The protesting farmers also contacted some local PML-N politicians, asking them to join the protest but they refused. They now plan to take their protest to Lahore.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2015

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