Request authorities to change masterplan or help rehabilitate units More than 7,000 industrial units in Shimlapuri,New Janta Nagar and 73 other colonies are in a fix for being placed in residential area category. The industrialists have started getting sealing notices from the Pollution Control Board,Human Rights Commission and various other departments to shut down their units and move out. The industrialists,however,have been pressing upon their demand to declare these areas as mixed land use areas. The general secretary of Small Scale Industrialists and Traders Association,Gurwant Singh said,The nearby colonies Dashmesh Nagar,Janta nagar and Jammy colony have been declared as mixed land use in the master plan and we have been kept in the residential segment. More than 70 per cent of the industrial units are in the colonies. He added,More than 12 units have been sealed by the Pollution Control Board while others are getting notices. Apart from nearly 7,000 factories,10,000 shops are also located in these residential areas. Our repeated requests fall on deaf ears. The government need to rehabilitate the units outside. If they cannot do this,then they should mark the areas as mixed land use. They have given shops to the kiosks owners of gill road as well. So why not us? It has also been revealed that the MC,Ludhiana,has dropped all town planning schemes in these localities and instead has been sent for approval to the state government,but so far no reply has come. Manmohan Singh Ahluwalia,president of the traders association said that Ludhiana (central) and Atam nagar constituencies will have to suffer in the coming elections if the change in master plan is not done. As per the masterplan,industrial units cannot expand into residential areas will have to move out within 10 years. The polluting units can be sealed as per recommendation of the pollution board.
