Centre lifts moratorium on new units in Ankleshwar-Panoli, Vatva industrial estates

Gandhinagar, November 26, 2016: Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Anil Madhav Dave today announced the Centre’s decision to lift  the moratorium ban on setting up new units in Ankleshwar-Panoli and Vatva industrial units in Gujarat.

Addressing a series of industrialists’ rally at Ankleshwar, Panoli and Vatva in the august presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Mr. Dave said the ban was imposed by the then UPA Government in 2010 citing the rising pollution levels of these industrial estates.

Mr. Dave said the decision to lift the ban was taken by the Central Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to encourage these estates falling under the industrial belt, called Golden Corridor, to set up new units.

He said that Gujarat has the potential to be a top-ranking province in industrial development in India and in the world. He said that entrepreneurs using product mix and willing to set up non-polluting industrial units in this industrial belt need not ask for fresh approval from pollution control authorities.

The Union Minister said that non-polluting industries should be encouraged to grow. One or two polluting units should not hamper the growth of entire industrial sector. He exhorted the industrialists to catch up with the global trend of providing finished products rather than raw materials.

Thanking the Prime Minister for the pragmatic announcement, Mr. Rupani said that the development of these industrial estates were halted due to the moratorium imposed by the Congress-led government at the Centre to check the popularity graph of the BJP Government in Gujarat. Now that it has been lifted, he said, it should create more job opportunities particularly in chemicals and pharmaceuticals sector.

The Chief Minister said that his sensitive and corruption-free government is concerned about the needs of the cross section of the society, and has plans to provide 67,000 government jobs to the youth by March 2017. At the same time, he appealed to the industrial houses to themselves observe pollution control measures, as a consideration for the future generation.

Gujarat’s Minister of State for Environment and Health Shankarbhai Chaudhry said that pollution-free environment is the collective responsibility of all stakeholders of the society. He said that natural resources and human existence are complementary to one another.

Prominent among those present at the rally included Gujarat’s Ministers of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja, Minister of State for Child Welfare Nirmalaben Wadhwani, MP Kiritbhai Solanki, Ahmedabad Mayor Gautam Shah, MLAs Rakesh

Shah, Suresh Patel, Bhushan Bhatt, Hasmukh Patel, Jagdish Panchal, Jagrupsinh Rajput, Additional Chief Secretary Forest & Environment Arvind Agrawal, Vatva Industrial Estate President Sachin Patel, former Vepari Mahamandal President Shankar Patel and Collector Avantika Singh, among others.

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