NO MANN'S LAND

The Punjab CM backs down, withdraws much- hyped land pooling policy after backlash from farmers and the HC

- By Anilesh S. Mahajan

It was mid-May, the time when the peak summer sun dries up all wellsprings of generosity. That’s when the Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab launched Land Pooling Policy (LPP), 2025.

It was a striking idea: bunching together 65,533 acres for industrial and residential projects. In retrospect, though, someone should have foreseen that, in a state where land is scarce and has much symbolic and material value, the move would generate enough heat to scald the government. The inevitable reversal took only a couple of months.

The LPP was marketed as a solution to revive the state's moribund economy while also benefiting the major donors, the farming community. The plan encompassed land parcels across 165 villages in some 27 cities, with around 21,550 acres earmarked for industrial zones. Owners were offered plots and annuities—Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh per acre till the land was developed—with promises of up to 400 per cent return on investment. The master plan projected huge inflows into infrastructure, logistics hubs and factories under India’s Gati Shakti framework. Punjab’s Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APU-DA) and Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) were drafting township-level layouts, hoping to attract Rs 10,000 crore in investments and create 150,000 jobs.

The only problem was, back in the villages, the farmers weren't buying it. Wary after the recent clashes over MSP (minimum support price) for their produce, anger quickly built up. Even sweeteners like a 10 per cent annual increment in the annuity failed to seduce the farmer lobby. CM Mann's protestations that the LPP was “voluntary, this is not land acquisition...the farmer remains the owner, trust us” didn’t go too far either.

BEGINNING OF THE END