'Land grabbing scheme', Badal slams Punjab govt's land pooling policy as Oppn steps up offensive

Chandigarh, Jul 28 (PTI) Opposition parties in Punjab Monday stepped up the offensive against AAP government over its land pooling policy, with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal calling it a "land grabbing scheme".

Badal also said that SAD would intensify its agitation against land "grab" by holding 'dharnas', after the first protest was held in Mohali on Monday.

The AAP government has been facing flak from the opposition parties, which dubbed its land pooling policy a "looting" scheme to "rob" the farmers of their land.

Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring accused the AAP government of trying "to snatch away the land of farmers without paying them anything".

Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who is also the chairman of the All India Kisan Congress, said that even AAP MP Malvinder Singh Kang had, in a post on X, flagged doubts about the "dubious" land pooling policy being pursued vigorously by the state government, "but it was shameful for Kang to delete the post under pressure from his Delhi bosses like Arvind Kejriwal".

“The objections raised by farmer unions must, in my view, be heard with empathy and addressed through meaningful dialogue,” Kang had said in a post on X on Sunday.

In a post on X on Monday, Khaira shared Kang's now deleted post.

Stating that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's "double face" stands exposed, Khaira claimed that while in opposition, Mann batted for democratic ways to fight wrongful acquisition of land, "but now in power he's doing the same forcible acquisitions".

Meanwhile, accusing AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal of being behind the land pooling scheme, SAD chief Sukhbir Badal told reporters on the sidelines of the protest in Mohali, "It is not a land pooling scheme, but land grabbing scheme. People of Punjab, including the poor and farmers, will not allow them (the government) to implement this policy.

"Shiromani Akali Dal will not allow one inch of land to be acquired in the state. We will fight the farmers' battle.” AAP has hit out at the opposition parties for spreading “misleading propaganda” against the land pooling policy, with party leaders describing it as "farmer-friendly".

The Punjab Cabinet last month gave its nod to the land pooling policy and asserted that not a single yard will be forcibly acquired from the land owners.

Under the land pooling policy, a land owner will be given a 1,000 square yard residential plot and a 200 square yard commercial plot in fully developed land in lieu of one acre of land, the state government said.

After clearing the policy last month, the government said it was designed to foster transparent and planned urban development across the state.

Addressing the gathering in Mohali, Badal said, "The magnitude of land loot by the Delhi masters of the AAP government in Punjab has no precedent in history. And there is no development rationale behind it.” "The 2,000 acres acquired for the Aerotropolis project in Mohali is still not utilised, while the government is going ahead with grabbing another 3,535 acres in its extension alone," Badal alleged.

The Akali Dal chief reiterated that his party would not allow the government "to grab even an inch of farmers' land”.

"I am ready to sacrifice anything but we will never allow any land to be taken by the government without the farmers' prior consent," he said. PTI SUN ARI