Mega prices may hamper land aquisition in Punjab

The state government's announcement to pay as much as Rs 1.5 crore per acre may set an unsustainable benchmark.

Dharam Singh of Juheri is a millionaire today as his land was identified for acquisition for the expansion of Chandigarh Airport.

The Punjab government's announcement to award Rs 1.5 crore per acre as compensation to farmers for setting up Chandigarh International Airport might be a windfall gain for the farmers in this pocket but it would also be a stumbling block for the upcoming projects being set up by the state government and private players. Experts feel the present land prices would emerge as a benchmark price for other pieces of land spread across the state.

The other projects for which the acquisition is to be made are the Rajpura thermal plant (1000 acres), and the Wagah integrated check-post (120 acres; the Punjab government is going to acquire land for the Centre) among others.

The state government has offered Rs 1.5 crore per acre as a compensation for the farmers for setting up Chandigarh International Airport. Initially, the state government will shell out the cost for the entire acquisition. Later, Haryana will cough up 50 per cent of the acquisition cost in order to have equity participation of 24.5 per cent in the proposed airport.

Further, the state has also waived off registration fee and stamp duty if the farmers buy land in the state with the compensation money within two years. The state government will acquire 306 acres and 18 marla of land for the airport which is likley to cost Rs 460 crore.

This has been the highest compensation by the state government so far. Earlier, it offered about Rs 64 lakh per acre for setting up Knowledge City which will come up at Sector 81 of SAS Nagar in Mohali. For the propsed project, the Punjab government has already acquired 381 acres of land to set up an integrated 'knowledge city'.

The government has initiated the process for acquisition of land for the Rajpura thermal plant though the compensation has not been fixed yet. Already, the farmers residing near Wagah are not willing to sell their land at the price earlier agreed upon.

Moreover, the Centre has mooted an ambitious plan to develop an integrated check-post (ICP) with a six-lane exclusive trade corridor for both incoming and outgoing cargo with a gate exclusively for trade near the international border at Wagah in a bid to strengthen economic ties with Pakistan.

Earlier, the price of the land was fixed in consultation with the farmers and the district administartion. The land has been divided into three categories: Rs 45 lakh per acre has been fixed for land on the main road, Rs 24 lakh per acre for land on the link road and Rs 20 lakh for the rest.

Speaking to Business Standard, Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu said, "Earlier, the farmers agreed to sell their land on the price fixed but now they are refusing to sell their land and are demanding almost two-and-a-half times more per acre."