Vanishing greens: A Punjabi farmer in a wheat field

Chandigarh, Jan. 24: The Punjab chief minister has a dream ? of seeing the fields of the Green Revolution turn into concrete jungles. The farmers can just migrate to Uttar Pradesh.

Amarinder Singh’s Congress government has been inviting private builders from abroad to announce projects worth thousands of crores of rupees. IT firms are being allowed to enter the real estate sector.

The policy, aimed at converting agrarian Punjab into a huge commercial hub, has sent land prices skyrocketing, with an acre costing crores in some parts.

In the past one month, the government has cleared several housing, township, mall and multiplex projects with a total investment of nearly Rs 25,000 crore. More projects are lined up.

Amarinder is unapologetic about his pro-builder leanings. He recently declared the state’s rural folk should sell their land to builders, move to Uttar Pradesh where land is cheaper and begin farming there.

“Land prices have risen sharply. One acre here can fetch 20 (acres) in UP. People should sell their land and go to UP,” he said, provoking an outcry from the Opposition and local industrialists.

The chief minister has also asked farmers to switch from wheat and paddy to oranges because a multinational company wants to set up a food-processing unit in the state.

“They (the company) are facing a shortage of oranges. Farmers should start growing them. The returns are lucrative. It will take just three years for the plants to start bearing fruit,” Amarinder explained. He didn’t reveal whether farmers who switch to oranges would receive subsidies.

“Amarinder (will end up) ruining the agrarian economy of the state,” Shiromani Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal said. “Housing projects built by construction agencies from abroad are not meant for the common Punjabi. The rates for flats, beginning at Rs 45 lakh, are beyond the reach of the middle class.”

Government officials claim the projects will create about 4.5 lakh jobs apart from generating large-scale indirect employment. But no company has been set a lower limit or quota for jobs for Punjabis.

The rising land prices have led businessmen in Amritsar, Mohali, Jalandhar and Ludhiana to complain that the state’s small industries are facing their worst crisis.

“Even if we want to expand, we cannot because of the high rates of land,” said Balbir Singh, an industrialist.

“The industries association had approached Amarinder with a project; he didn’t even listen to us. He only wants projects costing thousands of crores and not hundreds of crores.”