Badal slams Punjab govt over land-pooling policy
PTI
Last Updated:
Ludhiana, Jul 22 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday slammed the AAP government over its land-pooling policy and asked village panchayats to pass resolutions against any acquisition of land.
Calling the land-pooling policy a 'land-grabbing scheme", Badal said his party would not allow one inch of land to be acquired in the state come what may.
Addressing a 'dharna' outside the deputy commissioner's office here against the land-pooling policy, the SAD president demanded the immediate revocation of the entire 40,000 acres of land acquisition plan.
He said SAD would intensify the agitation against the 'land grab" by holding weekly 'dharnas', with protests being held on July 28 in Mohali and on August 4 in Bathinda.
Badal accused AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal of being behind this 'loot in league with builders of Delhi who had been promised large land parcels as per their wishes".
He warned the chief secretary, who has been made chairman of all development authorities, as well as their members that they would be held accountable for illegalities being committed in land acquisition processes in the state.
Badal claimed that the AAP government proposed to acquire 40,000 acres of land, including 24,000 in Ludhiana itself, under the archaic State Land Acquisition Act, 1995 instead of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
He said the 1995 law allowed for excluding land parcels from acquisition and lease as well as allowing auction or allotment of land as per the wishes of the ruling dispensation.
'This will open the doors for corruption and allow select parcels to be excluded from auction at the whims and fancies of the government. In direct contrast, the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 calls for giving compensation at four times the collector rate besides a resettlement scheme".
He claimed that under the land-pooling policy, the small farmers will be the biggest losers.
'Those possessing 50 acres of land would be eligible to get back 60 per cent of the same, whereas those possessing nine acres would only get 33 per cent back. Farmers would additionally not be allowed to sell the land, take loan on it or undertake change of land use (CLU) once the notification for acquisition is done", he said.
Senior leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had tried to justify the policy.
He said if the policy had been made keeping in mind the welfare of farmers then the chief minister should tell why he has been replaced as chairman of development authorities and gave this post to the chief secretary.
The AAP government has been facing flak from the opposition parties over the land-pooling policy. Even farmer bodies, including the Samukta Kisan Morcha, have also opposed the scheme.
The Punjab Cabinet last month gave its nod to the land-pooling policy and had then asserted that not even a single yard will be forcibly acquired from land owners. PTI COR CHS MNK MNK
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July 22, 2025, 19:45 IST
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