Widespread urbanisation in Punjab has forced many people to think that the agricultural land will be a thing of past if land acquirement by private developers and the government would continue like this.
Imagine that Sangrur district has registered a highest reduction in agriculture land by 125 thousand hectares in a span of past just five years. Amritsar follows the league with 68 thousand hectare of reduced land, Patiala at 26 thousand hectare, Hoshiarpur 18 thousand hectares and Mansa 10 thousand hectares.
Interestingly, the only districts of Faridkot and Muktsar have registered an appreciable increase in the net area under agriculture. While Faridkot has 25 thousand hectare more land under farming in last five years, Muktsar pegs this figure at 5 thousand hectare.
Farmer unions foresee the decline in agriculture land as an impending agriculture crisis. The holdings of only small farmers are being acquired under the urbanization spree. No one dares to touch the big farmers having in hundreds of acres.
The government keeps on acquiring fertile land for various projects. Take case of any district and one will find fertile lands being replaced with cement structures. Take the case of Mohali international airport, scores of malls and shopping complexes along Ludhiana - Jalandhar road, housing townships in different cities or thermal power plants at Rajpura and Gidderbaha. All reflect government's indifferent attitude towards agriculture," he said. In Rajpura, the government has recently acquired 300 acres of fertile for the construction of a thermal plant, which many remain in pipeline for the coming years.
There will be no land for agriculture purpose in the next 50 years or so, the government must use the barren land instead of the fertile for any of the purpose of setting up thermal plants and industrial units. Otherwise the next generation will not be able to see greenery but cement structures and smoke emitting units.
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