After the setback to Panjab government on the Land Pooling Policy (LPP), another scheme— Unified Building Rules (UBR), 2025—has caught people's attention, especially because the last date to make suggestions was 23 Aug. On 24 Jul, Panjab Housing and Urban Development minister Hardeep Singh Mundian introduced the draft UBR saying the bylaws were being standardized across all development authorities and corporations in Panjab and being made user-friendly, easily comprehensible, and implementable. He added the move would fulfil a pending demand of city residents and other stakeholders. On 21 Aug, the Public Action Committee (PAC) opposed the draft UBR, terming them a recipe for 'overcrowded, unsafe and unliveable cities.' PAC has submitted a detailed set of objections to the Director, Town and Country Planning, Panjab, alleging that the proposed changes favor builders and developers at the cost of the public and the environment. PAC said the new provisions allowing unlimited Floor Area Ratio and the removal of height restrictions could 'overwhelm infrastructure, worsen traffic, and create unmanageable fire risks.' Despite mandatory provisions under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006, the draft has been prepared without any environmental or social impact study. 'The UBR is a new form of land pooling policy. The previous policy proposed to cover horizontal landscape and these rules will lead to vertical extensions, choking towns and cities,' said Jaskirat Singh from PAC. He also added that neither was a Panjabi translation of the UBR available for people to respond, nor an email ID was provided. Meanwhile, the Panjab govt is now going to encash its own properties to raise money. This is through the Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Lands (OUVGL) scheme, which was first introduced in 1997. Under the OUVGL Scheme 2.0, all prime, unutilised state govt properties are proposed to be transferred to the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority, which will develop them and then auction them. Concurrently, on 24 Aug, Samyukt Kisan Morcha and Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) held a huge rally in Samrala to celebrate LPP withdrawal and signal a newfound unity among farmer unions (earlier coverage).
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