Won't allow AAP to acquire farmers' land Sukhbir Badal

Bathinda, Aug 4 (PTI) Shirimani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal Monday said his party will not allow the Bhagwant Mann dispensation to acquire an inch of land from farmers.
     He alleged that AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had done an "underhanded deal" with Delhi builders to hand over 65,000 acres of land to them at throwaway prices to fund AAP's upcoming election campaigns.
     "We will not allow one inch of land to be acquired under the AAP government's land grabbing scheme. We will continue our agitation till the land pooling scheme is not withdrawn," Badal said, in his speech to protesters gathered in front of the deputy commissioner's office here.
     He said the farmers of Punjab were being forced to pay for the AAP's "expansion" plans. "Kejriwal has virtually shifted to Punjab and has made the Markfed office in Mohali his residence," he said, adding, so has Manish Sisodia, who has been given a residence next to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's in Chandigarh.
     "The two, along with others from Delhi, have taken over the reins of the state and are bent on milking it dry," Badal said.
     The Akali leader claimed that only 11,000 acres of land have been acquired in Punjab in the last 25 years, out of which 3,000 acres are yet to be developed.
     "Similarly, only 28,000 acres of land were acquired to establish Chandigarh 75 years back, out of which 8,000 acres are still vacant. How can the AAP government think it will be able to develop 44,000 acres with 24,000 acres in Ludhiana alone?" he asked.
     The politician claimed that a long wait before the land could be developed would not only destroy the farmers but also the agri-economy of the state.
     "This should be turned into a mass movement," he said.
     Badal also said his party will make a policy, if it comes to power in 2027, banning outsiders from buying land in the state.
     Meanwhile, a bout of dizziness while he was speaking to reporters forced SAD leader Sikander Singh Maluka to leave the protest site. His supporters took him to a car.
     After recovering later, Maluka said he had suffered a situation with his blood pressure, but he was fine.
     The Aam Aadmi Party government has been facing flak over its land pooling policy, which the opposing parties have termed a scheme to rob the farmers of their fertile land.
     The AAP has defended the scheme as "farmer-friendly."
     The Punjab Cabinet in June gave its nod to the land pooling policy and asserted that not a single yard would be forcibly acquired from land owners.
     Under the land pooling policy, an owner will be given a 1,000 square yard of residential plot and a 200 square yard of commercial plot in fully developed land in place of one acre of land, the government said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)