Panjab to Auction Properties, 1.1M Beneficiaries Lose Ration

On 17 Sep, Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann launched Mission Chardi Kala (ascending spirit)—a global fundraising campaign to raise funds for the state government’s rehabilitation efforts for 2025 Panjab flood victims. At the same time, the Panjab Registrar of Cooperative Societies Girish Dayalan has also issued notices to cooperative housing societies which have not remitted statutory dues to respective urban development authorities and set a 21-day deadline for them to clear outstanding amounts. The government has also zeroed in on five properties including a Public Works Department rest house, a printing press, a veterinary hospital, and a sugar mill spread over 111 acres to be auctioned under the Optimum Use of Vacant Government Land scheme. The Indian National Congress Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa criticized the Aam Aadmi Party-led Panjab government, accusing it of orchestrating a systematic sell-off of Panjab's assets to mask its catastrophic financial mismanagement. After withdrawing the controversial Land Pooling Policy, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) will acquire land for Eco City 3 in New Chandigarh, 300 acres in Mullanpur, and 3.4K acres for the Aerotropolis extension project under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Meanwhile, after proclaiming that it will not delete beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act, the Panjab government has now adopted the Indian union government's criteria to exclude individual members of families from the scheme. As per the new criteria, as many as 1.1M beneficiaries stand to lose receiving free ration as the state government has issued a notification, listing the criteria for the inclusion and exclusion of beneficiaries. It states that all income taxpayers—those who pay the Goods and Service Tax, service and professional taxes, or own a motorised four-wheeler or air conditioners—will be excluded from the list of those receiving free food grains. The notification issued on 19 Sep is an amendment to the Punjab Food Security Rules, 2016 (earlier coverage).