After repealing, Punjab Cabinet withdraws land pooling policy notification

Chandigarh, Aug 14 (IANS) Three days after repealing the contentious policy, which triggered statewide protests by thousands of farmers, the Punjab Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, on Thursday decided to withdraw the notification of the Department of Housing and Urban Development pertaining to land pooling policy of June 4, along with subsequent Amendments.

Through the policy the government was looking to acquire 65,533 acres of land, of which 46,861 acres were to be acquired through land pooling in Ludhiana alone.

This had led to widespread protests by farmers and farmer unions and all Opposition parties.

Even the Punjab and Haryana High Court had stayed the policy, citing procedural lacunae.

A spokesperson for the Chief Minister’s Office said here that the Cabinet also approved an amendment to the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act of 1961 and the withdrawal of stamp duty and registration fee exemptions for certain classes of cooperative societies.

Currently, the Act provides exemptions from compulsory registration, originally intended to facilitate the development of cooperative institutions.

However, this provision has enabled property transactions, particularly in urban housing societies, to take place without formal registration or the payment of stamp duty and registration fees.

This situation has encouraged unregistered possession, ‘benami’ transactions, and other legally risky arrangements.

“Therefore, an amendment to Section 37 of the Act has been made by adding Clauses 2 and 3. These clauses stipulate that the state government may, through a notification in the official gazette, direct that the exemption under sub-section (1), or any part thereof, shall not apply to certain classes of cooperative societies or specified categories of instruments.

"Upon the issuance of such a notification, the instruments so notified shall be deemed to fall within the scope of clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (1) of Section 17 of the Indian Registration Act, 1908, and will accordingly be subject to compulsory registration under that Act,” the CMO spokesperson said.

To enhance the development of rural areas through proper execution and supervision, the Cabinet also approved the creation of the post of the Panchayat Development Secretary by merging the cadres of Panchayat Secretaries and gram sevaks (village development officers).

Subsequently, a state cadre will be constituted for these posts to accelerate rural development across the state.

For existing Panchayat Secretaries, a 'dying cadre' will be created, who will be placed based on their self-declaration letters and as per their seniority, following the existing gram sevaks in the seniority list.

The Cabinet granted ex-post facto approval for the formation of a Group of Ministers to ensure the smooth procurement of Kharif and Rabi crops.

The Group of Ministers is chaired by the Agriculture Minister and includes the Ministers for Food and Civil Supplies, Transport and Water Resources as members.

The Cabinet also granted ex-post facto approval for the formation of a Cabinet Sub-Committee.

This committee will review and consider the recommendations made by the committee of officers regarding Parts II and III of the Sixth Punjab Pay Commission Report.

--IANS

vg/rad