Govt to Acquire Land near Chandigarh; Farmers Continue to Oppose Scheme

The Panjab Government has approved 6,285 acres of land acquisition to develop nine new sectors and complete the pending development in five already developed sectors in Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (SAS Nagar). This will be the first acquisition under the Aam Aadmi Party regime’s new flagship Land Pooling Scheme. However, Kuljit Singh Bedi, deputy mayor of SAS Nagar municipal corporation, has asked Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), for full disclosure of the revenue collected through property sales and its subsequent utilization. 'They have collected huge sums but failed to reinvest in the city that generated the wealth,’ he said. Bedi has questioned how much property GMADA sold in SAS Nagar from 2020-21 to 2024-25, how much revenue was generated from those sales, and how much of that was spent on local development? Meanwhile, farmers with smaller land holdings near SAS Nagar, where acquisition of land for Eco City-III in New Chandigarh is underway, fear the policy heavily favors large landowners and private builders. Gurbakash Singh, a local farmer owning one acre of land, said, 'Under the earlier policy, GMADA offered a 200 sq m residential plot for every 500 sq m of acquired land. In the new policy, this has been slashed to 150 sq m. This means our land is being devalued. Meanwhile, farmers with over an acre still get benefits similar to those in the earlier scheme.' Jagroop Singh, a farmer from Hassanpur village near Ludhiana asked, 'Is this a government or a property dealer? They claimed we will be provided 1K sq m of developed residential land and 200 sq m of commercial land for every acre of land they would acquire. But when? What will a farmer do until then? How will we find buyers for such plots?' Farmer Gurpreet Singh Pamal from Pamal village, said, 'Ludhiana’s land is fertile and prosperous. Why not develop areas like Mansa or Bathinda where the land is barren and needs investment? (earlier coverage)'