Chandigarh, Dec. 18: Even as the National Green Tribunal stayed Punjab’s farmhouse policy in the lower Shivalik hills, the Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee has sought details of the land delisted from the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900, officials said.
CEC Chairman Siddhanta Das has written to Punjab Chief Secretary KAP Sinha seeking information on the areas excluded from the PLPA and the court orders under which the delisting was carried out.
A senior government official said the committee’s intervention followed objections raised by foresters and environmental groups, who claim the policy would benefit influential persons by allowing the regularisation of hundreds of farmhouses that could otherwise face demolition.
“The policy is legally untenable and scientifically indefensible,” members of the Public Action Committee-Mattewara said in a representation to the chief minister.
They argued that the unstable geology and steep slopes of the Shivalik Hills make even limited construction risky and warned of serious ecological consequences for forest areas with rich flora and fauna.
Environmentalists also faulted the state for proceeding without awaiting a decision on declaring an eco-sensitive zone around Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary and for ignoring provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
The policy, which affects about 55,000 hectares of forest-adjacent land, has been stayed until Feb. 4, when the tribunal will hear the matter again.
