Chandigarh, Aug 14 (PTI) The Punjab Cabinet on Thursday gave approval to denotify the land pooling policy, which the AAP government withdrew a few days ago.
The decision in this regard was taken in the
meeting of the council of ministers, chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann here.
Following the withdrawal of the policy by the Bhagwant Mann dispensation, farmers organisations and opposition parties were pressing the state government to issue the notification for the withdrawal of the policy.
In the face of mounting pressure from farmer bodies and opposition parties, the Punjab government on August 11 withdrew its land pooling policy, which it had once termed "farmer-friendly".
Following the rollback of the policy which they had described as the land "grabbing" scheme, the opposition parties and farmer organisations had called it a victory of the people of Punjab and had claimed that they "forced" the Bhagwant Mann government to withdraw it.
The AAP government's move of withdrawal of the policy came days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered an interim stay on the implementation of the land pooling policy for four weeks.
The court on August 7 had held that Punjab's land pooling policy appears to have been notified in haste and concerns including social impact assessment and environment impact assessment should have been addressed before its notification.
The Punjab Cabinet had approved this land pooling policy in June and had then asserted that not a single yard will be forcibly acquired from land owners.
The state government had planned to acquire around 65,000 acres of land at many places including around 45,000 acres only in Ludhiana for developing residential and industrial zones.
Under the policy, an owner will be given a 1,000 square yard of residential plot and a 200 square yard of commercial plot in fully developed land in lieu of one acre of land, the state government had said. PTI CHS NB
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