Chandigarh, May 21 (IANS) The Congress in Punjab on Wednesday opposed the proposal of the Aam Aadmi Party government in the state to acquire over 23,000 acres around Ludhiana city for non-agriculture purposes.

The party said it would not only snatch away the livelihood of tens of thousands of farmers, but would also prove to be economically and environmentally devastating and disastrous for the area.

“You are going to create a concrete jungle out of green agricultural land,” state party president and Ludhiana MP Amarinder Singh Raja Warring warned in a letter to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, while remarking, “AAP appears to have assumed the role of colonisers.”

“I am feeling concerned and worried about such a huge parcel of prime agricultural land getting acquired for non-agricultural purposes,” he said, adding, “so should be you, worried and concerned as it will not only snatch away the livelihood of of farmers, but will be ecologically and environmentally devastatingly disastrous.”

He said there was genuine anger and outrage among the affected people.

“If executed, this decision will snatch away the livelihood of tens of thousands of farmers in the affected villages,” he added while warning that “from being prosperous farmers, they risk turning into landless labourers in big cities.”

Warring observed that Punjab, being an agricultural state, cannot afford to convert such a huge parcel of land into a “concrete jungle”, particularly when there is no need or requirement for the same.

He pointed out that hundreds of colonies around Ludhiana are crying for attention. “Instead of forcibly grabbing the land of farmers in the name of development, why not regularise those colonies and provide facilities to the residents after claiming due developmental charges?” he asked.

“Or, is it because of some rejected ‘experts’ from Delhi who have suggested bringing in some populist schemes ahead of 2027 elections and for which you need money,” he said, adding, “it is like robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

–IANS

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