Land pooling policy put on hold till next hearing on Aug 7: Punjab AG submits in HC
: The
Punjab
advocate general on Wednesday submitted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the land pooling policy would be kept on hold and no further steps would be taken till the next hearing on Thursday.
The submission came on a petition filed by Gurdeep Singh Gill, who challenged the Punjab government's land pooling scheme.
The court has fixed Thursday (August 7) as the next date of hearing.
As the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, the court asked the Punjab government whether there was any provision in the policy for rehabilitation of the landless labourers for their sustenance.
The state has also been directed to inform the court whether a social impact assessment was carried out before notifying the land pooling policy.
"He (the AG) shall also inform this court if an environmental impact assessment had been carried out before notifying the policy," a division bench of Justices Anupinder Singh Grewal and Deepak Manchanda said.
The court said it has been directed by the Supreme Court in the case of 'Resident's Welfare Association and another vs Union Territory of Chandigarh (2023)' that before permitting urban development, an environmental impact assessment study should be conducted.
"Learned advocate general, Punjab, shall also inform this court as to whether there is any provision in the policy for rehabilitation of the landless labourers and others, who do not own any land but are dependent on land for their sustenance," the bench said.
"He submits that the policy would be kept on hold and no further steps would be taken till the next date of hearing," it said.
Gill, the Ludhiana-based petitioner, had sought directions to quash the state government notification dated June 24 along with the land pooling policy 2025 for being ultra vires and an act of "colourable legislation", violating fundamental rights.
The petitioner submitted that the policy is purported to be under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, but there is no such provision which empowers the state to frame such a policy as the provisions of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995, is the only Act under which this policy could be framed.
"No such social impact assessment report was either prepared or published, as per the provisions of law. Moreover, none of the gram panchayats or gram sabhas were approached or consulted by the respondents before bringing the land pooling policy, which is a clear disregard of the provisions mandated under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013," the petition said.
"Since there is no such provision of law under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, to frame the land pooling policy, therefore, there lies no mechanism or forum to challenge such policy and the petitioner is left with no remedy to redress his grievance," it said.
The AAP government has been facing flak from the opposition parties and various farmer bodies, which have dubbed its land pooling policy a "looting" scheme to "rob" the farmers of their fertile land.
AAP has hit out at the opposition parties for spreading "misleading propaganda" against the state government's policy, with party leaders describing it as "farmers-friendly".
The Punjab Cabinet in June gave its nod to the land pooling policy and asserted that not a single yard will be forcibly acquired from the land owners.
Under the land pooling policy, an owner will be given 1,000 square yard of residential plot and 200 square yard of commercial plot in fully developed land in lieu of one acre of land, the state government had said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
5 minutes ago
- The Hindu
The difficult path for Trump's ‘one big budget bet'
The most debated government downsizing reform that has been implemented in recent history has been the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative under the Donald Trump administration in its second term. The initiative aims to reduce U.S. federal spending, deficit, debt and interest burden, streamline government operations, and enhance government efficiency. The initiative was much in the news with the appointment of Elon Musk, to advise and guide the government on the initiative, and his declaration that the overall goal is to achieve a leaner government by cutting the deficit and reducing the number of federal agencies from over 400 to 99. Root cause of deficit and debt The need for a smaller government was felt by the Trump administration due to enormous government spending and deficits. The size of the U.S. government, measured by public expenditure as a percentage of GDP, on average, was 36.49% from 2001 to 2024. Surprisingly, this was the smallest among the seven major advanced economies (MAE). France (56.53%) had the largest government, followed by Italy (49.81%), Germany (46.64%), Canada (41.24%), the United Kingdom (41.09%), and Japan (37.56%). The size of the government in the U.S. has remained the smallest among the MAE for most of the last 25 years. Yet, overall fiscal balance and government debt have been higher in the U.S. when compared to the MAE. In the triennium ending (TE) 2024, the U.S. had a fiscal balance and debt burden of (-)6.0% and 119.5% of GDP, respectively, compared to the figures of (-)4.1% and 108.6%, respectively, for the MAE. The underlying reason is the lower revenue collection in the U.S. The total revenue of the U.S. government as a percentage of GDP on an average was the lowest (30.55%) during the period 2001–2022 compared to France (51.48%), Italy (45.93%), Germany (44.93%), Canada (39.92%), and the U.K. (36.63%). Between 2001 and 2022, the U.S. has clocked the lowest tax-GDP ratio of 19.27% as against 28.59% for Italy, 28.12% for France, 27.99% for Canada, 26.89% for the U.K., 22.70% for Germany, and 32.74% for OECD countries. Initiatives and outcomes The several expenditure reforms the DOGE has implemented are the termination of unused federal government office space leases, cancellation of wasteful contracts, recovery of misallocated funds, federal workforce optimisation involving initiatives such as hiring restrictions, workforce reduction, and offering voluntary buyouts, deregulatory measures aimed at ensuring lawful governance and reducing red tape. There is also Artificial Intelligence-based monitoring of federal employee activity, productivity assessment, and detection of inefficiencies, identifying and consolidating overlapping functions across departments, and cutting down overseas humanitarian and development spending. DOGE follows a transparent communication strategy by publicly sharing updates (on X or DOGE's portal) on the outcomes. The total estimated expenditure savings from contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, grant cancellations, fraud and improper payment detection and elimination, asset sales, employee reductions and regulatory changes have been $190 billion, which amounts to $1,180 per taxpayer. DOGE has made the distribution of government grants transparent through a payments portal, which allows citizens to see recipient-wise payments of federal grants. DOGE's Workforce Portal provides information on the agency-wise size of the U.S. government civilian workforce. To streamline layoffs, it has implemented the 'Workforce Reshaping Tool', a modernised version of the Pentagon's Automated Reduction in Force (AutoRIF) software, which assists in terminating federal employees based on criteria such as seniority and performance. So far, approximately 2,60,000 federal employees have been laid off, retired early, or accepted buyouts. Several federal regulations were repealed and modified, with a cost savings of $30.1 billion due to reduced regulatory compliance; also, 1.8 million words have been deleted from the rules of several Federal regulations. DOGE publishes a unique unconstitutionality index (UI) measuring the extent of bureaucracy's role in shaping federal policy. As per UI, for every law passed by Congress in 2024, there were about 19 rules created by the bureaucracy. The path ahead However, DOGE's journey has seen an unexpected turn after Elon Musk publicly disagreed with U.S. President Donald Trump over the provision incorporated in the much-debated One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) for removing tax credits offered to purchase electric vehicles. The OBBB is a legislative extension of the DOGE reform, as it aims to embed multiple fiscal priorities and DOGE-style government efficiency reforms into a single federal law. Ironically, by opposing OBBB, Mr. Musk contradicted his initiatives as an adviser to DOGE. However, the bigger challenge facing the DOGE initiative is that its extended form, the OBBB, is unlikely to resolve the U.S.'s deficit and debt problem, as the tax cuts proposed in the OBBB far exceed the spending cuts, leading to an addition of $3.2 trillion to the U.S. national debt over the next decade. Currently, the U.S. has the lowest and below-OECD-average corporate tax rates among the MAE, lower effective tax rates on the rich, and tighter secrecy laws that enable tax evasion by wealthy individuals and corporations. Therefore, unless efforts are made to boost government revenues, Mr. Trump's 'One Big Budget Bet' of reducing America's deficit and debt through DOGE-style expenditure reforms is unlikely to pay off. Sthanu R Nair teaches Economics and Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Kerala. Pratik Sinha is a consultant for a multinational firm. He was an Assistant Director, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India
Economic Times
5 minutes ago
- Economic Times
No legal mandate to publish list of excluded voters: ECI to Supreme Court
Synopsis The Election Commission of India (ECI) informed the Supreme Court that it is not legally obligated to create or distribute separate lists of individuals excluded from draft electoral rolls, nor to disclose reasons for non-inclusion. ECI shared the list of approximately 65 lakh electors, whose names have not been included in the draft roll, with political parties. Agencies The Election Commission of India (ECI) has told the Supreme Court that the law does not mandate it to "prepare or share" any "separate list" of names of electors not included in the draft electoral rolls. Also, ECI has argued that the law does not require it to "publish" the "reasons" for non-inclusion of an individual in the draft electoral rolls. "The statutory framework does not require the commission to prepare or share any separate list of names of people not included in the draft electoral rolls, or publish the reasons for non-inclusion of anyone in the draft electoral rolls for any reason," the affidavit reads. This has been submitted by ECI in response to an application filed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking details of 65 lakh names dropped from the recently published Bihar draft electoral roll as part of an ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Pertinently at the outset, ECI, in its affidavit, has submitted that the list of approximately 65 lakh electors whose names have not been included in the draft roll has been shared with political parties. It has further submitted that since "neither the law nor guidelines provide for preparation or sharing" of any such list of previous electors whose enumeration form is not received for any reason during the enumeration phase, "no such list can be sought by the petitioner as a matter of right."The poll body has said that the petitioner (ADR) "can reach out" to political parties to "gather" the said list. Noteworthily, ECI has said that "exclusion of a name from the draft electoral roll does not amount to deletion of an individual from the electoral rolls". It added, "The draft roll simply shows that the duly filled enumeration form of existing electors has been received during the enumeration phase."Elaborating, the poll body has submitted that "but, on account of human involvement in execution of this exercise of scale, there is always a possibility that an exclusion or inclusion might surface due to inadvertence or error. It is for this reason that the law provides a remedy that if the Electoral Registration officer (ERO) is of the view that owing to inadvertence or error during preparation, the names of any electors have been left out of the draft roll, the ERO has the power to take remedial action."It added, "It is for this reason that issuance of reasons for exclusion of names from the draft rolls is not contemplated in the statutory framework governing the preparation of electoral rolls." Giving reasons for not preparing or sharing reasons for exclusion of electors in the draft rolls, ECI has submitted that "no inquiry is done for the inclusion of anyone's name in the draft rolls, and each and every individual whose, enumeration form, has been received, has been included in the draft rolls, without any reservation or exception."
Time of India
14 minutes ago
- Time of India
Gunfight with terrorists in Kishtwar
Representative image JAMMU: A gunfight broke out Sunday between terrorists and security forces during a cordon-and-search operation in a remote area of J&K's Kishtwar. Officials said the operation in the Dul area of the hilly district in Jammu zone followed specific inputs and was still on. It came a day after two army personnel died in an ongoing gunfight with Pakistan-trained terrorists in south Kashmir's Kulgam in one of the valley's longest counterterrorism operations. 'On noticing the security forces closing in, the hiding terrorists (in Kishtwar's Dul), believed to be two in number, opened fire. This was promptly retaliated by forces, leading to the gunfight,' an official said. Reinforcements have been rushed to the area. The Army's White Knight Corps confirmed the operation. 'Troops carrying out an intelligence-based operation established contact with terrorists in Dul. Gunfire exchanged. Operation under progress,' White Knight Corps posted on X. Pakistan-based terrorists who infiltrate the border use Kishtwar as a corridor to get to the upper reaches of Kathua before moving to Udhampur Doda and the Kashmir valley. Kishtwar shares boundaries with Kashmir's Anantnag, as does Doda. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Europe Travel Hack That Saves You Hundreds on Trips! Undo Earlier, on July 20, the Army had launched an operation in Hadal Gal area of Kishtwar, triggering an encounter with terrorists, but they slipped away. Prior to this, forces had combed Chatru area of Kishtwar on July 2 after inputs about hiding terrorists but they vanished into dense forests. On May 22, an Army jawan died after a gunbattle with terrorists in Chatru. Over a month before that, three Pakistani terrorists were eliminated in an encounter in the same area on April 11 and 12.
