‘NO VIOLATION OF RULES IN MOHALI LAND DEAL’

Amarinder asserted that there was no violation of rules or conflict of interest in his Mohali land deal.

He accused opposition leaders of unnecessarily creating a controversy in this regard to promote their vested political interests.

“Is the CM not allowed to purchase land? They are trying to befool the people with baseless allegations of conflict of interest,” he said.

Capt also claimed that he had paid higher than the DC rate to purchase the land, located in Siswan in Mohali, since the owner was not very keen to sell the plot. “Against the DC rate of ₹30 lakh, I actually paid double the amount — at about ₹60 lakh per acre.”

Asserting that his land had nothing to do with the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), the CM said he plans to construct a small farmhouse there since he did not have a house in Chandigarh, besides planting 32 varieties of fruit trees.

He also clarified that he had no intention of using the two khasras of forest land, covered by the Act. “These will be left as they are, without even fencing of any sort,” he said while adding that the remaining part of the land had been denotified way back in 2011 by the previous government.

The CM said he already owned 15 acres in Majri village, which he had purchased about 25 years ago. That piece of land was subject to restrictions under PLPA and continued to remain so, he added.