Key Points

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government "is committed to protect the farmers", adding the "state-sponsored conspiracy to loot the farmers' land in the name of development to help realtors would never be accepted".

Chugh, who personally met Punjab's farmers and submitted their memorandum to the Governor, said: "This is not a policy, it's a betrayal. Farmers know exactly what this scheme is, an official tool to snatch their ancestral lands. Let the Mann government hear this loud and clear: we will not let them grab even an inch of Punjab's farmland."

Exposing the hypocrisy of the Bhagwant Mann (Punjab CM) government, Chugh added: "No promise has reached the ground. Loans haven't been waived. Jobs haven't reached the youth. MSP guarantees are missing. All that's flourishing under AAP is lawlessness, corruption, and false promises."

He further said the land of Punjab's farmers "is sacred, like a mother, and any attempt to forcibly acquire it without consent is nothing short of dacoity".

"This is not development. This is coercion under the garb of progress. We will fight this battle on the streets, in the courts, and among the people. Punjab will not be handed over to land sharks and political contractors," Chugh said.

He accused the Mann government of acting like middlemen for real estate mafias, betraying the very farmers who voted for change but were delivered betrayal.

However, state Finance Minister Harpal Cheema has clarified that the land pooling scheme is farmer-friendly and based on mutual consent.

"Not a single inch of land will be forcibly taken from any farmer. Whether to give land or not is entirely up to the farmers' will," Minister Cheema told the media here.

The state Finance Minister's clarification comes in the wake of farmers' objections against the scheme.

He criticised the Congress, the BJP and the Akali Dal, and said that during the previous governments in the past decade and a half, thousands of illegal colonies were developed in Punjab, where even basic facilities like roads, electricity, water, and sewerage were absent.

- IANS