Aravalis (File photo)



CHANDIGARH/GURUGRAM:The Haryana Assembly on Wednesday passed the controversial Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Act, 2019 with a voice vote on the concluding day of the budget session as Congress, SAD and INLD MLAs walked out in protest.

The 118-year-old legislation, introduced by the British in 1900, restricts all non-forest activity in thousands of acres of land along the Aravali and Shivalik foothills under Sections 4 & 5. The amendment excludes municipal areas and those notified under master plans (effectively, all urban areas) from the ambit of the law. As a result, a city like Gurugram, which is notified under three master plans, will go entirely out of PLPA’s purview. So will most of Faridabad, where the Haryana government recently said it wants to build a new city over an area of 55,000 hectares. The total area under PLPA in Gurugram is 6,869 hectares. In Faridabad, it’s 4,227 hectares. The total area notified under PLPA in Haryana is 30,000 hectares.

The amendment, which nullifies all notifications under PLPA from the time Haryana was established (November 1, 1966), also gives post-facto approval to existing violations and encroachments, which means illegal constructions in PLPA notified areas will now get legal sanctity.

This will have implications for all legal cases and complaints filed citing PLPA over the decades against illegal construction in the state. It remains to be seen how the amendment affects the sprawling, high-profile Kant Enclave in Faridabad, which was built in a protected area and is facing a legal battle in the Supreme Court.

Legal cover off foothill land

PLPA amendments will improve system: Khattar

Another change the amendment brings about is that it gives the Haryana government discretionary power to exclude, rescind and exempt any area that continues to come under PLPA.

The opposition claimed over 80,000 acres of protected land would now be made available to real estate developers and miners, a charge the government refuted, saying the Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Act was in the interest of people.

“This is the demand of the day,” chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said in the assembly. “As of now, we are facing litigation for Kant Enclave and Huda sectors. Nearly 16 districts are covered and we have become helpless, hence this amendment was necessary. We have taken care of protected areas.”

Opposition legislators had asked the CM to form an all-party committee to study the ramifications of the amendment before tabling the bill for discussion. They also strongly sought an explanation for the need to implement the changes in the law retrospectively.

The CM had defended the amendment to the PLPA during the debate on the governor’s address last week. “For decades, Arvavalis saw illegal mining. Now, putting a single brick has become a difficult in the districts of Faridabad, Mahendergarh, Rewari, Gurugram and Bhiwani. The amendments are targeted to improve the system, that too without damage to the environment,” he had said.

On Wednesday, after Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar asked forests and wildlife minister Rao Narbir Singh to present the bill before the House, INLD’s Julana MLA Parminder Dhull urged the government to withdraw the bill without discussion. The amendment, he said, would result in a constitutional crisis and could lead to legal complications. Congress Legislative Party leader Kiran Choudhary and fellow MLAs — former speaker R S Kadian, Karan Singh Dalal and Lalit Nagar — strongly opposed the bill. “This will be a black day in the history of environment as this bill will destroy the Aravalis , which not only act as a shield for

NCR and New Delhi but are a unique hilly area,” Choudhary told the House.

The party’s Palwal MLA Karan Singh Dalal accused some Haryana ministers and the CM’s office of playing into hands of the mining and builder mafia. “Why is this government in such a haste to bring in the bill without giving a specific reason? Legally speaking, this is the violation of court orders as well. This bill will certainly fall flat in the high court. But one thing is for sure that generations will not forgive this government as well this assembly,” said Dalal.

The thin attendance of INLD MLAs, however, helped the ruling party — only 3 of 16 MLAs were present in the house during the discussion. Parminder Dhull held fort and walked out when the bill was passed.

Environmentalists said the bill wasn’t an amendment but amounted to a cancellation of PLPA. “This bill is essentially a repeal of the PLPA. The bill has lifted the most important legal protection to the Aravalis in South Haryana and many parts of Shivaliks to open it for real estate development, mining, and whatever the state fancies,” said Vivek Kamboj of Haryali, an environmental NGO.

“The bill is the most deadly assault on the Aravalis in the 52-year history of Haryana and is the darkest time for environmental conservation in the state. The numerous amendments combined will effectively nullify the PLPA itself. This is an attempt to give legal sanction to all construction, which have so far been prohibited under PLPA 1900,” said Chetan Agarwal, a forest analyst.

Legal experts, though, said lifting PLPA will not give sanction to unauthorised constructions. “The amendment is in contempt of various Supreme Court orders, including the one given in the Kant Enclave case recently, wherein the court reiterated that all PLPA areas are forest. In 2002, 2004, 2009 and 2018, during various hearings, the apex court said that PLPA areas are to be treated as forest, and therefore, protection of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 apply to PLPA areas,” said Lt Col Sarvadaman Singh Oberoi (retired), a legal expert.

“The Aravalis act as green lungs of NCR. They are crucial for recharging groundwater,” said Aparna Kapoor, a resident of DLF Phase III.

