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Punjab Vision
revealed: Sell people's land, raise malls
and hotels, call it development
WSN
Bureau
CHANDIGARH: After much hype and noise about the "vision" of the
Punjab Government, and of course after many a Power Point
presentations by Sukhbir Singh Badal, here is the model of
development unveiled by the rulers -- sell all the land that the
government owns in the state and pump that money into development
ventures. But once all the land is sold, what will the regime do, or
the next regime do? Well, that is a bridge too far, so why bother
now!
 Top officials in Punjab have revealed now that the government will
be selling off all the vacant land lying with various government
departments and has hired two companies, Feedback Ventures Pvt Ltd
and IL & FS-IDC, to prepare reports to execute this imaginative
idea. Sukhbir Singh Badal has stoutly defended it. His argument? "It
was the previous Congress government that had started selling off
land, so it has no moral authority to criticise the Akali government
on this score."
"Besides, if land in a particular district is sold, the money earned
would be spent on the development of that very district only," the
acting president, actually the de facto ruler, said. Since when did
the state government decide to make holistic plans of development on
a district-specific basis is a question neither the media has
raised, nor the politician has faced.
In Orwellian fashion, the scheme will be called Optimum Utilisation
of Vacant Government Lands (OUVGL). That selling off a land is
optimum utilisation is so far not an idea thought of by anyone else.
"The previous Congress government was not innovative and (was)
mentally bankrupt, so it could not chance upon this idea for income
generation (in a big way)," Sukhbir Singh Badal was quoted by the
Indian Express (Visit www.WorldSikhNews.com for link to Indian
Express report).
The Optimum Land Use policy will be an exercise in simplicity in its
execution: Initially, the land will be transferred in the name of
the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) and then it will
be sold and put to commercial use. What will be built? Malls,
hotels, amusement parks...development Punjab-ishtyle!
Some 13,413 sites have been identified across Punjab, including 436
properties of the Education Department, 371 of the Revenue
Department, 229 of the Health Department, 180 of the Animal
Husbandry, 75 of PWD (B&R), 32 of the Police Department, 4,163 of
BDPOs, 1,753 of improvement trusts, 1,277 of the Central government,
1,009 of the municipal corporation, 11 of the PSEB, six of the mandi
board and 599 of the Forest Department.
 Any land or property not just vacant but even found surplus or
under-utilised will also be auctioned. Private companies were being
paid vulgur sums to prepare reports for executing this idea.
Defending the decision, Sukhbir gave an example saying the
government generated Rs 200 crore in Bathinda from the sale of a
piece of land.
30 January 2008
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