Chandigarh, September 22
Successive governments in Punjab have used various clauses of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 to oust farmers from their land. In doing so, they have conveniently chosen not to implement the “pro-farmer” Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995, as also follow various pro-farmer provisions of the Panchayati Raj Act.

Not only this, in order to extend undue leverage to PUDA and various other agencies in their drive to divest farmers of their land, successive governments have issued various orders to help these agencies ignore mandatory provisions that could have safeguarded the interests of the farmers.

The present government headed by Capt Amarinder Singh has even pleaded before the Supreme Court that the Land Acquisition Act, which is a general Act, overrides the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995.

As per the Panchayati Raj Act, development activities in rural and urban areas in a district must have the stamp of approval from elected members of various village-level civic bodies such as panchayats, gram sabhas and district committees (for rural areas) and notified area committees, municipal councils and municipal corporations (for urban areas).

Article 243W of the Constitution of India says that urban planning, including town planning, regulation of land use and construction of buildings, planning of economic and social development, etc, is all under the purview of the panchayats and various civic bodies.

Clear and thorough measures that have to be taken while planning and carrying out development activities have been defined in the law. But, all this is not being followed.

In fact, even the authority of the PUDA in planning and carrying out development of areas such as Mohali on its own stands challenged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In many such petitions, it has been pointed out that the government and PUDA have been conveniently overlooking Article 243 ZD of the Constitution which says that there has to be in every state at the district level a district planning committee to consolidate the plans prepared by the panchayats and municipalities in the district. Experts claim that Punjab has steadfastly refused to implement this clause.

While Punjab does have the Punjab District Planning Committees Act, the committees have not been constituted.

Through various exemption orders issued from time to time, the Punjab government has given PUDA overriding powers with regard to crucial issues like site selection, development of sites, etc.

Not only this, the government has exempted Section 70 (Chapter 10) of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995, which provides for preparation of outline master plan before initiating development of an area.

The Act also provides for constitution of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning Board to be headed by the Chief Minister, which has the duty to prepare a detailed master plan for each and every district, publicise it, seeking objections from various parties.

The Act allows landowners to apply to the government with a proposal to develop their land, either singly or in groups, as per the master plan. For clearing such proposals, there has to be a competent authority. But, in Punjab, PUDA is the designated competent authority in this regard.