Chandigarh, July 18
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's latest move to rechristen Mullanpur as 15,000-acre New Chandigarh is the third such attempt since 1993 by the Punjab government to cash in on City Beautiful. The coterie of neta-babu-dalal has fiddled with its fate thrice - with even one such attempt being shot down by the Punjab and Haryana High Court High Court in 2001.

It was late Chief Minister Beant Singh (belonging to the Congress) who first came out with the New Chandigarh project two decades ago. His plan was to acquire 15 villages in the area. "The villages that were intended to be included were Togan, Milkh, Mastgarh, Tira, Ratwara, Mullanpur, Nayagoan, Nada, Kansal and others," said Mohinder Singh, a former panchayat member. The opposition Akalis then ensured the project was grounded.

This is what Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, then the leader of opposition, said on June 29, 1995 "Lakhs of people will be adversely affected. Moreover, it will damage Punjab's claim on Chandigarh...as for the farmers whose land is being acquired, who've worked day and night to make it fertile, no amount of money can compensate them."

The Akalis returned to power in 1997. CM Badal took a U-turn and revived it under the name Anandgarh at the tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib on April 13, 1999. The Anandgarh Development Authority was set up to acquire around 10,000 acre of land in 29 villages. This was not to be.

In March 2001, a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, comprising Justice Jawahar Lal Gupta and Justice N K Sud, struck down the project. The court raised mainly two objections:

n As the township fell under the Periphery Control Act (disallowing construction 16 km around Chandigarh), the permission from the competent authority under the provisions of the Punjab New Capital (Periphery) Control Act, 1952, was not taken.

n The statutory provisions of the Section 56 of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act (PRTPDA), 1995, were not adhered to. The rules demand notifying the local planning area (LPA) and inviting objections and suggestions from the pubic.

"The government has proceeded to acquire land without being entitled to raise any construction or even lay any roads. The entire proceedings can prove to be an exercise in futility," the judges observed.

Going into the objectives of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act (PRTPDA), 1995, the Bench said the legislature enacted the Act to regulate and plan land use; to ensure proper urbanisation; and to check haphazard growth. To achieve these objectives, the Act provided for the constitution of a State Regional and Town Planning and Development Board, which would be guiding and directing the planning and development process in the State.

Holding that the PRTPDA was applicable to the Anandgarh project, the court regretted that while embarking upon the project, the state had not shown even "scant regard" for the salutary provisions of the statute.

Officials then handling the Anandgarh project say before the project was scrapped, members of the 29 gram panchayats (where the land was being acquired) formed Anandgarh Hatao Sangarsh Committee and opposed the project. "The land compensation between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 7 lakh was peanuts. A population of around 60,000 was being displaced due to the acquisition. We went to court and won", said Karnail Singh, a resident of Mullanpur Garib Dass village who headed the agitation in 2000.

Town Planners said after a limited contest among four architects, the radial ring design presented by late Satnam Singh, one of the participating architects, was short-listed. The remaining three were given a prize of Rs 2 lakh each. But before the short-listed architect could move ahead, it was grounded.

Six years later, the Punjab government did its homework and made a strong legal case. It declared Mullanpur as a local planning area under the regional master plan for the Greater Mohali area. This was the time when land prices skyrocketed. The government then rechristened the area as New Chandigarh about two months back. This is how the government countered the legal objections:

• Under the PRTPD Act, Mullanpur was identified as one of the six clusters of development in the Greater Mohali Area Regional Master Plan, prepared by Jurong Pvt Ltd
• Mullanpur was notified as a local planning area.
• Objections were invited from the public after notifying the draft master plan (Once an area is notified as local planning area, provisions of the Punjab New Capital (Periphery) Control Act, 1952, ceases to apply).

The saga of Mullanpur, thus, continues.