Mohali, Jul 21 (PTI) Punjab Congress on Monday held a protest against the AAP government’s land-pooling policy, calling it a land “looting” scheme and sought its immediate withdrawal.
Led by Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, senior leaders and party workers gathered outside the office of the Greater Mohali Development Area (GMADA) and raised slogans against the land-pooling policy.
Addressing the protesters, Warring said, “It was a subtle ploy of the Aam Aadmi Party government to loot and rob the farmers of their precious land. This is not land-pooling, but ‘land looting’ policy.” He asked who will hand over one acre of precious land for a thousand yards in return.
Warring said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann should have learnt from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s experience, who eventually had to “surrender” and withdraw the three farm laws after pressure from farmers.
“You should know, when it comes to his land, a farmer can do anything to protect it”, he said, while expressing solidarity and support of the Congress with the farmers in their fight against the policy.
The party also submitted a memorandum, addressed to the chief minister, to the GMADA administrator, seeking immediate reversal of the policy. It said that the policy will be environmentally and economically “devastating and disastrous” for Punjab.
“What purpose does it serve?” he asked, while claiming there is no demand for the policy from anywhere.
Targeting the state government over the scheme, Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa too accused it of pursuing a “hidden, anti-farmer agenda” and declared they would not “surrender” even an inch of their land. Punjab’s farmers will not tolerate “coercive” land acquisition in any form, he said.
Bajwa alleged that AAP’s land-pooling policy is nothing but an “outright looting” of Punjab’s agricultural land, which, he said, farmers revere as their mother.
The leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly said the policy is not development, but “exploitation disguised as reform - a blatant attempt to dispossess farmers of their most sacred asset.” “Its design was inherently misguided, and now the repercussions are unfolding as predicted. In the name of urban development, valuable, fertile land is being unjustly taken away from farmers, threatening the very foundation of rural society. Farmers will be stripped of their only source of livelihood, and villagers face the imminent threat of displacement,” alleged Bajwa.
The Punjab Cabinet last month gave its nod to the land-pooling policy and had then asserted that not even a single yard will be forcibly acquired from land owners.
Under the policy, a land owner will be given a 1,000 square yards of residential plot and a 200 square yards of commercial plot in fully developed land in lieu of one acre of land, the state government had said earlier.
Replying to a question on Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar reportedly suggesting a SAD-BJP alliance, Warring said they were always together and had a “subtle” understanding. He said the two parties must have realised “the ground beneath their feet has already slipped away and they cannot fight on their own.” He said even if they come together, they will not make much difference as both the parties have “lost” the ground in Punjab. “Zero plus zero will always add up to zero,” said Warring.
Among those present included AICC secretary Ravinder Dalwi, MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, party leaders Balbir Singh Sidhu, Sandeep Sandhu, Gurkirat Kotli, Kaka Randeep Nabha. PTI CHS MNK MNK
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