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The lawyer said that under the land pooling policy, neither social impact assessment nor any environmental assessment was made.
Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday imposed an interim stay on the implementation of Punjab’s land pooling policy. This instruction came on a petition filed by Gurdeep Singh Gill, in which the land pooling policy of the Punjab government was challenged. After the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel Gurjit Singh said that the court has imposed an interim stay on the land pooling policy. He said that four weeks have been given to file the answer. The lawyer said that under the land pooling policy, neither social impact assessment nor any environmental assessment was made. Ludhiana resident petitioner Gill demanded a directive to cancel the state government’s notification and land pooling policy 2025 on 24 June, as it is a “colorful law” out of jurisdiction and “colorful law”, which violates fundamental rights.
Social impact did not assess
On August 6, the court asked the Punjab government whether there is any provision for rehabilitation of landless laborers in the policy. The state was also instructed to inform the court whether the social impact was assessed before notifying the land pooling policy. The petitioner presented that since the land pooling policy was considered under the Right to Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation and Right to Transparency Act, 2013, but there was no provision that would give the state the right to formulate a policy as the provisions of Punjab Regional, Municipal Planning and Development Act 1995 were the only Act, under which this policy could be prepared.
Gram Sabha not contacted for policy
The petition said that according to the provisions of the law, no such social impact assessment report was prepared nor published. Apart from this, no gram panchayat or gram sabha was contacted or consulted by the defendants before bringing the land pooling policy 2025. With which this policy is a clear disregard of compulsory provisions under the Right to Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation and Right to Transparency Act 2013. The petition states that despite the proposal passed in 2013 to make the land pooling policy 2025, there is no mechanism or platform to challenge such a policy. The petitioner has no solution left to redress his complaint. The AAP government is facing criticism from opposition parties and various farmer organizations. The opposition has termed the government’s land pooling policy as a loot scheme to snatch their fertile land from farmers.
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