AAP selling state assets to hide its financial mismanagement: Cong

The decision by the Punjab Mandi Board to transfer prime 12 acres of land, housing modern fruit and vegetable market in Mohali, to the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) under the Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Land (OUVGL) scheme has attracted sharp reaction from the state Congress.

Not only the vegetable market land, the government has identified large chunks of land of the Printing and Stationery Department, Public Works Department, Animal Husbandry and Health Department that were being transferred to PUDA for auctioning, said official sources.

Besides, the government has sought Rs 1,000 crore from the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) to help address its ongoing financial crisis. This is apart from Rs 2,500 crore already borrowed by the state from the Housing Department.

Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said, “The AAP government was resorting to selling the family silver in the form of the land bank. These lands are not just valuable assets but also hold the potential for public use and long-term state development, now being "auctioned off like scrap to plug holes in the financial misadventure”.

Following direction from the Punjab Chief Secretary, the Board of Directors of the Punjab Mandi Board, at its meeting held on September 25, decided to transfer the land to PUDA at collector rate. The cost of transferring the land to PUDA would earn Mandi board around Rs 700 crore. The fruit and vegetable market was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in 2014. A senior government functionary said the Mandi board had sent its proposal to PUDA. It was for PUDA to accept the proposal.

Over the past one year, the Mandi board auctioned vegetable and fruits shop sites to the traders who are now running their business.

Expressing surprise over the Mandi board decision, former Cabinet minister and former Congress MLA from Mohali, Balbir Singh Sidhu said, “The Mandi Board decision to cancel the auction of the shops and return the deposited amount of the allottee, along with 6 per cent interest, was snatching their livelihood and was totally absurd. The decision to transfer land to PUDA after running the vegetable market was legally against the spirit of the acquisition of the land for the intended purpose. We would drag the government to court,” he added.

Bajwa accused the AAP government of orchestrating a systematic sell-off of Punjab's assets to mask its catastrophic financial mismanagement. “The party was steering Punjab towards economic collapse while trying to auction off prime govt-owned properties and to survive politically by selling off Punjab's future.”