Punjab’s land pooling policy on Wednesday was put on stay by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court stated that the Punjab’s land pooling policy cannot be taken forward until the environmental assessment study is done.
However, Punjab government's lawyer argued that the land is not being acquired right now. During the hearing, the court has raised questions on many important points related to the policy and has sought answers regarding the policy. A detailed reply has been sought in the next hearing of the case.
As per reports, this petition was filed in the High Court by Ludhiana resident Advocate Gurdeep Singh. He himself is a farmer and his own land was coming under this policy. In such a situation, he challenged the land pooling policy.
His argument was that clear rules have been set by the central government regarding land acquisition and the state government cannot change these central rules at its own will. The High Court had accepted his petition
The court has ordered the government lawyer to tell whether social impact assessment and environmental planning assessment were taken care of before notifying the policy. The court said that if all these aspects were not taken into account before issuing the notification, it could be a violation of the orders of the Supreme Court.
The court also argued that the policy should be postponed till full information is received in this matter. Farmers, food security and animal husbandry should also be analyzed.
The next hearing of this case will now be on August 6. The Punjab government will have to submit all the instructions and reports before the court.
The Punjab Government had earlier introduced the Land Pooling Policy 2025 to involve landowners, promoters, and companies as stakeholders in urban development and to encourage participation in land pooling.
To gather feedback for the policy, the state government conducted several meetings with sarpanches of various villages, representatives of different unions, and farmers.
As per the amended policy, landowners whose land is taken will be offered an alternative of 125 square yards of residential land and 25 square yards of commercial land per kanal of land. Additionally, the department will issue a Letter of Intent (LOI), enabling landowners to obtain bank loans.
Furthermore, upon issuing the LOI, the department will provide landowners with a lump sum of ₹50,000 as a subsistence allowance.
After taking the possession landowners will be paid an annual payment of ₹1,00,000. This annual amount will increase at a rate of 10% per year, starting from the date of taking land until the developed plots are handed over to the respective parties.
