Patiala, August 6- Releasing a booklet of Punjab Government's Land Pooling Policy and Punjabi translation of the amendment notification, Internationalist Democratic Platform, IDP leaders said that the Punjab Government's land pooling policy is completely against farmers and laborers.
On this occasion, IDP State President Darshan Singh Dhanetha, State General Secretary Tarlochan Singh Sular Gharat, Faljit Singh Sangrur, Gurmeet Singh Thuhi, Tara Singh Phagguwal, Manpreet Kaur Rajpura etc. participated and eminent thinker Hamir Singh specially participated.
On this occasion, they said that the Punjab Government has initially decided to implement the land pooling policy by acquiring lands of villages near 27 cities and towns of the state, arguing for urbanization and industrialization. Under this, it is estimated that about 65,000 acres of land will come under 164 villages. The Punjab government is saying that this is a voluntary scheme. No land will be taken from anyone forcibly, while the real picture is the opposite.
The farmers who gave the land, if the land is in the possession of PUDA, then they will have to pay External Development Charge (EDC) or one crore rupees per acre for development and if the local authority i.e. GLADA, GMADA has control of the land, then the farmer will have to spend two crore rupees. Under this policy, the farmer will be given a share of one thousand yards of residential and 200 yards of commercial land after development.
He further said that this policy is not a resettlement arrangement for farm laborers, shopkeepers and other categories other than farmers in the villages. He further said that the land pooling policy of the Punjab government is land grabbing. He appealed to the people that this policy should be read by as many people as possible. On this occasion, the leaders held a meeting and discussed various agendas and formulated a future strategy.