Land Pooling Policy may lead to resurgence of farmer unions

Over the past four months, all major farmer unions of Punjab have remained on the margins. The marginalisation began after the ruling Aam Aadmi Party launched two major crackdowns on protesting farmers in March this year.

Now, the AAP government has launched its most-hyped revenue-generating Land Pooling Policy in the state. Can this policy bring the farmer unions back to the centrestage and revive their political relevance? This is the question being asked in the state, as a majority of policy decisions in Punjab gravitate towards the urban masses, especially industrialists.

From a party that supported farmer unions—so much so that they were willing to give them a few seats in the 2022 Assembly polls and also won a number of seats in the Malwa region with their support—to now being considered a party favouring industrialists, the AAP has found new allies, while the farmer unions have seemingly lost their glory attained in the 2020-21 yearlong protests at Delhi borders.

But with the cash-strapped Punjab government announcing the Land Pooling Policy, which basically seeks to monetise state’s farmlands by converting these into lands for setting up residential, commercial and industrial projects, the farmer unions have found a cause to fight for.

Though the government is not forcing farmers to give up their lands under the policy, the 80-odd farmer unions see this as a perfect platform for their resurgence.

Since agriculture remains the second-most important sector of Punjab economy (after services sector), farmers are worried about the socio-economic impact of this large-scale “usurping of agricultural land for urbanisation and industrialisation”.

It is learnt that as of now, 65,533 acres of land is to be acquired through land pooling in Ludhiana, Mohali, Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala, Bathinda, Moga, Mansa, Ferozepur, Nawanshahr, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Sultanpur Lodhi, Phagwara, Nakodar, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Batala, Tarn Taran and Pathankot.

The largest chunk of land — 45,861 acres — is to be acquired through voluntary land pooling in Ludhiana alone for setting up residential and six industrial zones. The next big chunk of land measuring 6,285 acres is to be acquired in Mohali.

“Around 14,000 farmer families, besides hundreds of families of farm labourers, will be displaced once land is acquired. Where will they go? They are unskilled and will have no means to earn livelihood. It is an economically and socially disastrous policy. We are making people aware of this. Also, the Bharatmala project and upgradation of railway services will take away another two lakh acres of fertile farmlands. It is now a question of farmers’ existence in the state that has prided itself as the premier agrarian state of India,” says SKM leader Balbir Singh Rajewal.

Though there have been numerous attempts to reunite the farmer unions in the past one year, these have all failed in wake of personal ambitions of leaders and competition amongst them to claim the “sardari”. But now the things seem to have changed. With the unions decimated by the AAP government after the two crackdowns on their leaders in March, there is now a renewed effort to keep the past differences aside and reunite.

Both SKM leader Balbir Singh Rajewal and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leader Sarwan Singh Pandher have confirmed that there is a strong possibility of unity amongst the farmer unions.

While the SKM has already announced its schedule for amassing public support on the issue from July 18 onwards, Rajewal says that the SKM is open to other unions joining them for a common cause to save “Punjab’s lands and its agriculture”.

Punjab