BJP seeks rollback of land pooling policy, urges Kataria to intervene

A BJP delegation on Friday met Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, seeking his intervention to ensure the rollback of the state government’s land pooling policy.

The delegation included state party president Sunil Jakhar and BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh. The policy was launched in May to boost urban development, with the government claiming that is would benefit farmers and landowners who would get plots of higher value in exchange for the land contributed by them.

The policy has been rolled out for 27 urban centres. Townships will be developed near several cities, including Ludhiana, where over 24,000 acres of agriculture land is expected to be acquired for the purpose.

It envisaged “complete voluntary participation” by landowners. For every one acre contributed by farmers, they would get a residential plot of 1,000 sq yards besides a commercial plot of 200 sq yards. However, earlier too, Jakhar had equated the initiative to a “Ponzi scheme” to loot farmers, who he said were being enticed with a “false of promise” of four-time return on their land to benefit favoured real estate players.

On Friday, the BJP leaders submitted a memorandum to the Governor against the policy. Interacting with mediapersons, Jakhar termed the government’s move a “daylight robbery” and alleged that it had been introduced “only to seize land from farmers and distribute it among the ruling party’s favourites”.

He said under the 2013 Land Acquisition Act, the consent of 80 per cent of farmers of the affected area was mandatory and land could only be acquired for roads and national security purposes. He said the BJP stood firmly with farmers and won’t allow even an inch of land to be acquired without their consent.

Jakhar alleged that the government was yet to frame rules and regulations regarding the policy, making its implementation dubious.

Punjab