Chandigarh, February 1: The Punjab government Friday extended the notification locking 15 villages of Mohali under Punjab Land Preservation Act, (PLPA,) 1900, for another 15 years. The notification, protecting the Shivalik foothills from ecological destruction, was to lapse after 15 years on Friday.
With the notification extended today, two out of six acres of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s recently purchased land (khasra numbers 174 and 175) in Siswan too have been locked under the Act. As a result, the CM cannot undertake any construction activity on these two acres. However, four acres of his land were delisted from PLPA by former SAD-BJP government in 2011.
The CM had ordered immediate extension of notification after his land purchase was mired in a controversy, with the Opposition AAP saying the government would allow the notification to lapse to “benefit the CM.”
The 15 villages where the notification was extended for next 15 years include Nada, Karoran, Parachh, Maajrian, Soonk, Chhoti-Bari Naggal, Siswan, Pallanpur, Dulwan, Boorana, Tarapur Majri, Sultanpur, Majra, Paraul and Gochar, other than the delisted areas.
Punjab’s Forest and Wildlife Preservation Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot said in a statement that the notification had put a stop to the misinformation campaign in the region.
The controversy saw the CM transferring Chief Conservator of Forests (Hills) Harsh Kumar, who wrote letters to several developers that the notification would lapse on February 2 and they would be able to develop their properties. His letter was interpreted as government’s move to do away with the notification and help several affluent people who had bought land in the area, in vicinity of Chandigarh.
Source The Indian Express
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