Punjab: Housing department has acquired only 11,000 acres of land since 2000

Punjab: Amid concerns raised by farmers and political parties over the acquisition of 63,533 acres of land in various cities by the AAP government, data collected by the housing department has revealed that only 10,967 acres of land has been acquired by various development authorities in the last 25 years. Of these, about 8,000 acres have been developed. The state government has acquired an average of 440 acres of land every year for residential and mixed land use. The maximum of 9,311 acres of land has been acquired by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) for Aerocity, Ecocity, Medicity, IT City and Anandpur Sahib Urban Estate. Most of the land was acquired during the Akali-BJP government.
The Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) has acquired 325 acres of land since 2000, but development work could not be done on this land. The Patiala Development Authority (PDA) has acquired 419 acres of land, while the Amritsar Development Authority (ADA) has acquired 242 acres of land in 25 years, out of which 155 acres of land has been developed. Similarly, the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) has acquired 185 acres of land in the last two and a half decades. Out of this, about 45 acres of land has not been developed. The Jalandhar Development Authority (JDA) has acquired 66 acres of land, out of which 60 acres of land has been developed. The above land has been acquired for residential, commercial and mixed-use projects.