SAS Nagar-Senior Congress leader and former Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu today announced that he will lead the people of Mohali constituency in a protest in front of the GMADA headquarters on July 21 at 10 am to demand the repeal of the anti-farmer land pooling policy brought by the state government.
Sidhu announced that Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and all senior party leaders including Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa would address the protest. He said that all the farmers’ organizations and farmers of the concerned villages have already decided not to give land and the Congress party will not allow the land of the farmers to be snatched away at any cost. He appealed to the people of the constituency to join the protest in large numbers and said that only public anger will force the government to withdraw this anti-people policy.
The Congress leader said that this land pooling policy is a clear violation of the pro-farmer law made by Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government in 2013 for land acquisition, under which it is mandatory to conduct social and environmental impact assessment of the area before acquiring land. He said that according to this law, the consent of 50 percent of the land owners is necessary and the law also has a provision that if the land is not used even after five years, then the land will have to be returned to the previous owners. Mr. Sidhu said that the Punjab government has brought this land pooling policy as a ‘thief loophole’ to avoid the pro-farmer clauses of this law.
Giving details of this anti-farmer policy, Mr. Sidhu said that in the old policy, in exchange for 1 kanal of land, the landowner was given a 200 square yard residential plot or 125 square yard residential and 25 square yard commercial plot, whereas under the new policy, the landowner will be given only a 150 square yard residential plot. He said that the landowner with 1 kanal will directly suffer a loss of 50 square yards. He said that even according to the price of allotment made by GMADA, the landowner will suffer a loss of Rs. 30 lakhs while the market price will be much higher.
The Congress leader said that similarly, a landowner with 2 kanals will be given 100 square yards less space than the old policy and a landowner with 3 kanals will be given 150 square yards less space in the new policy. He said that it is clear from this that small landowners have been severely oppressed in this policy.
Mr. Sidhu said that in this new policy, under the 50 acre scheme brought to benefit the land mafia and big companies, 30 acres will be returned to the landowners. He said that this scheme has been brought for those builders or companies who have already accumulated land because in the area of proposed urban estates in Punjab, no landowner has 50 acres of land and neither can the landowners accumulate land.