Mohali, January 17
It is poor man’s loss and rich man’s gain. The urban estate sites, which were given up by the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) across Punjab, are now being lapped up by private real estate developers.

A house in these urban estates that would have cost a middle class buyer a few lakhs would now be available through private players in many multiples of a lakh.

Following an order of the government, PUDA gave up the land acquired by the authority for the establishment of urban estates across the state. In some cases the notification under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act had also been issued and the farmers were waiting for the compensation award.

Instead of retaining the land and compensating farmers on the basis of a new land pooling scheme, the government chose to give up prime land at Amritsar, Khanna, Jalandhar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Nawanshahr among others.

At some places private players were already eyeing these lands. In Khanna for example, Advance India Limited, a group promoted by the Ambujas, was interested in the land being developed by PUDA as an urban estate.

Sources said the matter became an issue of contention between the then Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and the then chief administrator of PUDA Som Prakash.

An additional secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development, in April 2006 had written to the government that in Khanna notifications under the Section 4 and Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act were issued and giving up the land in favour of Advance India Limited would not be fair. The then additional chief administrator (ACA), Ludhiana, further recommended that the company should not be allowed to develop a colony on the land. Som Prakash too put his foot down on the issue.

In a note dated December 31, 2006, Amarinder Singh had asked PUDA to “drop the proceedings” in case of the Khanna urban estate pointing out the private player had bought land before PUDA did, thus paving the way for the private company to set up township.

Sources said the PUDA chief refused to comply with the orders for which he was transferred out of PUDA. At this stage a powerful Akali leader also reportedly contacted the PUDA chief asking him not to do “anything wrong” at the behest of the Chief Minister who he added, “was in any case going out of power.”

However one of the first things the new government did when it came to power was to give up not just the land it had acquired for urban estate at Khanna but also at many other places in Punjab.

The urban estates had been planned following a survey undertaken by PUDA some years ago. An overwhelming response was received in favour of establishment of these urban estates. Since PUDA allotted plots are highly subsidised, the middle class buyers can afford them.

Facing acute shortage of land, PUDA’s own existence is at stake now. In a note by the then ACA (projects) in December 2006, the officer had pointed out even if PUDA has to pay Rs 50 lakh per acre to the farmer for the land the urban estate projects were viable. He had pointed out for the survival of PUDA the creation of a land bank was also necessary.