Punjab Land Pooling Policy Suspended by High Court Pending Environmental Assessment

Chandigarh (The Uttam Hindu): Punjab and Haryana High Court has put a stay on the land pooling policy of Punjab government till tomorrow. The court said that this process cannot be taken forward until the environmental assessment study is done. During the hearing, the court has raised questions on many important points related to the policy and has sought answers regarding the policy.

This petition was filed in the High Court by Ludhiana resident Advocate Gurdeep Singh. He himself is a farmer and his own land was coming under this policy. In such a situation, he challenged the land pooling policy on behalf of farmers and landowners. He argued that clear rules have been set by the central government regarding land acquisition and the state government cannot change these central rules at its own will. The High Court accepted his petition. However, the government lawyer argued that the land is not being acquired right now.

The court has sought answers to several questions in this case. The court has ordered the government lawyer to tell whether social impact assessment and environmental planning assessment were taken into account before notifying the policy. The court said that if all these aspects were not taken into consideration before issuing the notification, it may be a violation of the orders of the Supreme Court. The next hearing of this case will now be tomorrow.

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