Haryana chokes itself

Haryana has played out the old, old dodge. With a contemptuous disregard for civil society’s apprehensions and serious reservations from the Opposition benches, the Haryana Assembly has given the nod to the Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2019. It has been introduced retrospectively from November 1, 1966, when the state came into being. Whatever may be thought of the soundness or otherwise of the move, it is perfectly certain which section will gain optimally from it: the builders’ lobby. The next segment that will feel compelled to extract its pound of flesh is the political class. Elections and funds are compulsive bedfellows. 

The decision, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar expressly asserted, was necessitated by the state’s will to strike a balance between ‘development’ and ‘environment’, as farm land and development plans were under the PLPA. About 1,500 building licences had been granted and if the Supreme Court were to take action, the ramifications would be markedly huge. Hence the rush, a concerned CM inferred. And so, it has been decided — arbitrarily — to open several areas covered by the Aravallis in Gurugram and Faridabad to real estate. About 60,000 acre of forests will be up for grabs. Civil society need not be alarmed, for the state Forest Minister has reassured that it is in ‘public interest’, only the public doesn’t know. Chiefly whose interest will be served is anybody’s guess.

Haryana has an abysmal forest cover of 3.59 per cent, the lowest in the country. It can’t sacrifice any more of its forests at the altar of development. There will be grave consequences for unleashing concretisation on the state, which is an irreversible process. The plunder of its ecology will be irredeemable. Already, air pollution has come up as a major challenge in New Delhi and the NCR. There is not the smallest hesitation in saying who will bear the brunt of this recklessness and be subjected to the repercussions: the people of the state. What the short-sighted state has wished upon itself is self-combustion.