Dr. M S Bajwa
Former Director of Research, P A U Ludhiana
It is a matter of grave concern that Greater Ludhiana Development Authority (GLADA) is going to acquire more than 24,000 acres of fertile agricultural land from several villages around Ludhiana, to develop urban estates, residential colonies, etc. Farmers are protesting against the proposed acquisition of their fertile agricultural land. Their demand for withdrawal of this proposal is genuine and should be accepted by the government.
The land area for agriculture is already shrinking and rate of agriculture based economic growth is declining in Punjab because of indiscriminate over-exploitation and acquisition of fertile agricultural land for urbanization, real-estate business, un-regulated industrialization, developing infrastructure like roads (thousands of acres have gone under Bharat Mala Road project), railways, buildings ,etc. and other non-agricultural activities. Punjab has State level Planning Board, but no policy seems to have been formulated for ensuring planned and regulated use of natural resources including bio-diversity, soil, water and environment. This indiscriminate exploitation in rural areas is contributing to un-sustainability of agro-economic growth, decline in economy of farming community, creation of agriculturally-landless villages, slums in most of the peri-urban areas around cities, pollution of eco-system and degradation of natural resources.
Punjab needs to formulate a comprehensive land-use policy (land resource is a state subject), effectively involving stakeholders including: farming community, village panchayats, industry and other related agencies. Focus should be on providing regulations and guidelines that govern how land resources are to be allocated, managed, utilized and conserved and for infrastructure development for diversified-agriculture based economic growth. The action-plans should ensure efficient management of available land for agro-economic sustainability, regulated rural development and urban expansion, industrialization and Infrastructure development, etc. The policy must help in maintaining a balance in agriculture, industry and eco-system, while ensuring that farming and agriculture based economic growth remain more lucrative.
Emphasis should be on preparing State/region/village/-specific digitalized land-use inventories based upon topography, land-capability, agriculture production potential and crop-specific land-suitability, agro-industrial potential, geo-hydrology, ground water behavior and its quality, and socio-economic aspects.
Institutions like Punjab Remote Sensing Centre and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) need to collaborate to create Geographical Information System (GIS) based maps that can be used to appropriate land zoning for separate land suitable for agriculture, industry, housing, etc.
A well-defined farmer-friendly policy needs to be formulated to ensure proper rehabilitation of the affected people when agricultural land is appropriated by government for other uses.
A State regulatory body needs to be set up to govern the identification, classification, evaluation and allocation of different types of land for agricultural or non-agricultural uses.
