Panjab Trying to Auction Unutilized Land, Power Supply Unions Object

Panjab’s cash-strapped government is trying to auction off the vacant and unutilized government lands. After its Land Pooling Scheme crashed, this time around, the government wants to auction the properties in a phased manner. In the first phase, government properties in Sahibzada Ajit Sigh Nagar (SAS Nagar), Ludhiana, and Patiala are to be auctioned after the government has reworked and re-evaluated the price at which these properties are to be auctioned off. An unnamed official said, 'We have found that the reserve price kept for these properties is too high, much higher than the market assessment. As a result, these could not be auctioned in the past. We want to bring the reserve prices of these properties at par with the market rates in order to get bidders for competitive auctions.' Various unions of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) employees have opposed the government's move to auction around 40 PSPCL properties across the state. They demanded that the Panjab government should immediately stop the process and the properties should be used only for the expansion of its own future projects. The unions took a unanimous decision to oppose the move to sell or lease valuable lands and assets of the power sector. Concurrently, Panjab Leader of Opposition Indian National Congress' Partap Singh Bajwa has sought the intervention of Panjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria in halting the move of the Punjab Mandi (Grain Markets) Board to transfer 12 acres of vegetable and fruit market in SAS Nagar to Punjab Urban Planning & Development Authority for auction. In his letter, Bajwa said, 'On the surface, this may be framed as an inter-governmental adjustment. In substance, it dismantles an operating public market, unsettles small traders who invested in good faith and erodes value to the public exchequer by substituting a true market discovery with an administrative rate.' Meanwhile, Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal laid the foundation stone for setting up 3.1K sports grounds across the state. Kejriwal said modern playgrounds, equipped with modern facilities, for volleyball, football, hockey, and athletics, will be established in villages across the state (earlier coverage).