SC order may derail PM146;s pet project in Punjab

On September 27, 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research at Mohali.

On September 27, 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research IISER at Mohali. In his speech he had said it was his 8220;earnest hope8221; that the institute would take Punjab to 8220;a new horizon in science teaching and research8221;.

In the same speech, the PM had also expressed happiness with the fact that the first of the five National Institutes of Public Health was being set up at Mohali by the Public Health Foundation of India in collaboration with the Punjab Government.

However, the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in the Anandgarh case 8212; the SC set aside land acquisition for the prestigious project on the grounds of procedural lapses by the government agencies 8212; may derail these projects.

While the process for acquisition of land for these projects is mired in legal tangles, the state Government officials don8217;t want to admit whether these prestigious projects would be completed on time and, more importantly, at the same spots where they were planned.

Apart from the National Institute of Public Health, Mohali was also selected to be the site of country8217;s third IISER, National Institute of Biotechnology and the National Institute of Nanotechnology.

Land owners have challenged the acquisition process on the ground that the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act PRTPDA, 1995, were being violated.

8220;We have already challenged the process of land acquisition for these projects at Sector 81, Mohali. Our main contention, something that has been upheld by the apex court, is that the government turned the entire process faulty by not following the provisions of Sections 56 and 57 of the PRTPDA.

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According to these sections, there has to be a Board to specify an area as a regional planning area, local planning area or a site for a new town or project clearly defining the limits of the area. After considering the objections and suggestions that may be received by it, the Board may declare the area to be a planning area by a notification in the official Gazette, and thereafter appoint a planning agency for performance of the functions related thereto. However, this procedure was not followed in the impugned cases,8221; said senior advocate G S Grewal, counsel for the landowners, who have challenged the acquisition process.