Ludhiana, July 22 Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday appealed to panchayats affected by the Aam Aadmi Party’s 40,000-acre land pooling scheme to pass resolutions, saying they would not part with their land even as he made it clear the party would not allow one inch of land to be acquired.
Addressing a sit-in protest outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office here, he demanded the revocation of the entire 40,000-acre land acquisition plan.
He said the Akali Dal would intensify the agitation against the land grab by holding weekly ‘dharnas’ with the first dharna being held on July 28 in Mohali and on August 4 in Bathinda.
Badal said AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal was behind this “loot in league with builders of Delhi” who had been promised large land parcels as per their wishes.
He warned the Chief Secretary, who has been made Chairman of all development authorities, as well as their members, that they would be held accountable for illegalities being committed in land acquisition processes in the state.
Explaining the entire issue, the Akali Dal chief said the AAP government proposed to acquire 40,000 acres of land, including 24,000 in Ludhiana itself, under the archaic State Land Acquisition Act of 1995 instead of the Central Land Acquisition Act of 2013.
He said the 1995 law allowed for excluding land parcels from acquisition and lease, as well as allowing auction or allotment of land as per the wishes of the ruling dispensation.
“This will open the doors for corruption and allow select parcels to be excluded from auction at the whims and fancies of the government. In direct contrast, the Central Land Acquisition Act of 2013 calls for giving compensation at four times the collector rate, besides a resettlement scheme.”
He said the move to acquire the land through the state Land Acquisition Act of 1995 had not been passed in the state Assembly, which itself made it illegal and unconstitutional. Badal said that under the new acquisition, the small farmers will be the biggest losers.
“Those possessing 50 acres of land would be eligible to get back 60 per cent of the same, whereas those possessing nine acres would only get 33 per cent back. Farmers would additionally not be allowed to sell the land, take a loan on it or undertake the change of land use (CLU) once the notification for acquisition is done.”
Another senior leader, Daljit Singh Cheema, said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had tried to justify the policy recently.
He said if the policy had been made keeping in mind the welfare of farmers, then the Chief Minister should tell why he refused to put his signature on it and forced the AAP Delhi dispensation to replace him as Chairman of development authorities and give this post to the Chief Secretary.
--IANS
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