Short on Funds, Panjab Plans to Sell Prime Land

With an outstanding debt of almost USD 43B, Panjab’s fiscal health is precarious. Rising subsidy bills, interest on legacy debt, and expenditure on salaries and pensions have left no legroom for capital expenditure. To tide over the financial crisis, the government has decided to sell vacant or unutilized government land under the three-decade-old Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Lands (OUVGL) scheme. In a meeting chaired by Panjab chief secretary Kumar Anugraha Prasad Sinha on 11 Dec, several land pockets in Patiala, Bathinda, Amritsar, Ludhiana, and Jalandhar were identified to be disposed of under the scheme. The profit expected from the sale of these land pockets is estimated to generate a revenue of USD 306M for the state. Additionally, months after rolling back its land pooling policy, the Panjab government has cleared the decks for a major urban expansion push by acquiring 5.1K acres for developing nine new sectors in Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar and two townships in New Chandigarh. The mandatory Social Impact Assessment has been completed and an expert committee has endorsed the acquisition. Concurrently, the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has started the process to demarcate nearly half of a 21-acre chunk of land in Sector 53 for auctioning the site for group housing for employees of the Union Territory administration. The other half would be sold to private developers. Meanwhile, the opposition parties have opposed the decision of the Panjab government to transfer 165-acre land of Bathinda-based Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Power Plant (GNDTP) to Punjab Urban Planning & Development Authority (PUDA) for commercial exploitation. The government approved the transfer of 165.67 acres of land of the GNDTP's residential colony to PUDA under the OUVGL scheme. 80% of the proceeds from the sale of the land will be kept by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited and 20% will go towards PUDA (earlier coverage).