Farmers demand land pooling policy on Punjab pattern
After the Punjab Government unveiled its new land pooling policy, farmers in the city have decided to intensify the demand for the formation of a policy on the lines of Punjab.
“In the absence of a land pooling policy, illegal colonies and haphazard constructions are taking place on agricultural land outside ‘lal dora’ in the city,” said Satinder Pal Singh Sidhu, a farm leader and Chairman of the Chandigarh State Cooperative Bank.
In many areas of the city, plots of two and four marlas have been sold illegally outside the ‘lal dora’ on the basis of power of attorney, claimed farmers, and added that illegal construction outside the ‘lal dora’ could have been avoided if there had been such a policy.
Expressing happiness over the formulation of the policy in Punjab, Sidhu said they had been asking the UT Administration to make a policy for the past many years. He further stated that the Punjab Municipal Act was applicable in Chandigarh. In such a situation, a land pooling policy should be introduced for the villagers of Chandigarh on the Punjab pattern, he added. At present, nearly 1,000 famers own nearly 2,800 acres of cultivable land in the city. The UT Administration had last acquired the land in 2016.
Due to lack of land acquisition, no new project is coming up in the city. The shorter route from Chandigarh to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali was put on hold as the Administration was unable to acquire land for construction of the road in the absence of a land pooling policy.
The UT Administration’s ambitious project to establish a shorter route to the Mohali international airport received a setback after nearly 80 landowners refused to comply with the UT’s Negotiation Policy of 2018 and insisted on the Punjab or Haryana’s land pooling policy. The then UT Administrator, Banwarilal Purohit, had approved the acquisition of land for the project through UT’s Negotiation Policy of 2018. Subsequently, the Administration issued a compensation notification ranging from Rs 2.54 crore to Rs 3.34 crore per acre. However, the landowners rejected the policy and demanded land acquisition through Punjab or Haryana’s land pooling policy or the 2013 Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act.
The Administration had planned to acquire 51 acres in Chandigarh’s Jagatpura and Khandala villages. The new road was to start from the T-point of Vikas Marg. The current distance from this intersection to the airport is 11.5 km after traversing through Mohali. The shorter route will reduce it to around 3.5 km, thereby bringing the travel time down to five minutes.
With formation of a land pooling policy, construction of illegal colonies will be stopped. Farmers can give their land to the government under the land pooling policy and the government will develop roads, sewerage and other basic facilities on that land and sell it in the market. In lieu, the farmer will also be given a share to build a house or commercial property. The government will pay the price of the land to the farmers at the market rate. The land will be developed by government agencies.
The Administration had recently stated that due to the recent decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), land pooling policy does not seem feasible because returning freehold rights of developed land shall not be feasible to farm owners. Further, development in this area can only be done in accordance with the Chandigarh Master Plan-2031 after acquisition of land has been done earlier for planned development, stated the Administration.
