‘Withhold assent to bill validating de-licensing’

CHANDIGARH: Congress MLA from Faridabad NIT, Neeraj Sharma, on Thursday urged Haryana governor SD Arya to withhold his assent to the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas (Second Amendment and Validation) Bill passed by the state assembly on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference, Sharma said insertion of a new clause section 3 (a) in the Act which would give power to de-license land parcel has been done to favour well-heeled influential people, including developers. “I have written to the governor, requesting him to withhold his assent to this bill which is not in public interest,” the first-time MLA said.

He said that party MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra had also sought referral of the bill to a committee of the assembly before it was passed by the legislature. Batra had sought a review of the definition of vacant land under section 7-A of the bill, an argument supported by leader of the opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The assembly had on Wednesday passed the bill to validate past actions of the TCP department since 1975, including de-licensing of land taken under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act.

The amendment and validation bill, if assented to by the governor, would come as a relief to the developers of Gurugrambased Ambience Mall besides several similar cases involving de-licensing of land.