Govt planning to sell public land, says Amarinder Singh

Ropar : State Congress president Amarinder Singh today alleged that the SAD-BJP Government had decided to sell public land to meet its financial needs.Talking to reporters here, the former Chief Minister warned the state government against selling the public land. “The state government has decided to sell its land and has made the Punjab State Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) the nodal agency for this,” he said. “All land is being transferred to the PIDB to enable it to sell it apparently to meet financial needs of the state government,” he added. He alleged that earlier too, the government had sold its rest houses in the state and now it had decided to sell the public land. “This land belongs to the people of Punjab and the state government has no right to sell it,” Amarinder Singh said. The Punjab Government had earlier decided to sell land under the Optimal Utilisation of Vacant Government Land Scheme to raise financial resources. On farmers’ protest in Rajpura, where land was being acquired for an IT park, the state Congress president said they should be paid the prevailing market rate.