Punjab Notifies Land Pooling Policy 3.0 for Greater Mohali & New Chandigarh, Raising Farmer Plot Entitlements

What was decided

The Punjab Government issued a formal notification on July 6, 2026, amending the Land Pooling Policy-2020 to enhance benefits for landowners across the entire GMADA jurisdiction. The notification issued on July 6 amended the Land Pooling Policy-2020 notified on January 5, 2021, and subsequently amended on November 21, 2025. The notification amends a policy first issued in January 2021, revised in November 2025, and now amended again following an in-principle decision taken at a high-level meeting in April. The Council of Ministers approved the changes on July 1.

The notification marks the third formal revision of Punjab's land pooling framework within 12 months, each iteration forced by a combination of farmer resistance, political pressure and ground-level implementation failures, and each making the policy more generous than its predecessor.

The plot entitlement changes

Under the residential category, the commercial SCO component has been raised from 200 to 210 square yards per acre, applicable to holdings of one acre and above. The alternative residential-only entitlement has been raised from 1,600 to 1,630 square yards per acre. Under the commercial category, the entitlement has been raised from 800 to 840 square yards per acre — a revision not previously announced and not reported before this notification.

Conveyance deed, Sahuliyat Certificate and oustee quota

The revised policy offers a free conveyance deed, a doubled Sahuliyat Certificate validity of four years and oustee quota residential plots at scheme price to all landowners irrespective of whether they opted for cash or plots. Under option 2, the landowner can avail stamp duty exemption on purchase of land anywhere in Punjab, calculated on the basis of the collector rate. The priority tubewell connection window has also been extended to four years, co-terminus with the revised Sahuliyat Certificate validity, and PSPCL has been directed to ensure installation immediately upon application.

The simultaneously amended Oustee Policy-2013 extends oustee residential plot entitlements to all farmers irrespective of whether they opted for land pooling or cash compensation. Under the revised oustee policy, a landowner with one acre under acquisition is entitled to a 200 sq yd residential plot at scheme price on a preferential basis; those with above one and up to 2.5 acres are entitled to 300 sq yd; and those with above 2.5 acres are entitled to 500 sq yd.

All plots, including preferential location plots that were previously being retained by GMADA, will be included in the draw of lots. This provision also applies to Aerotropolis Pockets A, B, C and D, Eco City-3 and the low/high density townships.

Why the policy has been revised three times

The first iteration — the Land Pooling Policy-2025 notified on June 4, 2025 — proposed compulsory pooling of 65,533 acres statewide. Farmer protests followed within days, backed by the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued an interim stay. The government withdrew the policy in August 2025. The November 2025 revision made pooling optional, giving farmers the free choice between developed plots and cash.

Residual grievances over plot size, the exclusion of cash compensees from oustee quota, the short two-year Sahuliyat Certificate window, and preferential plots being retained by GMADA produced the Pucca Morcha, a three-week permanent dharna outside GMADA headquarters in Mohali. The April 11 high-level meeting produced the in-principle decisions, and the July 6 notification converts those decisions into enforceable policy.

Practical effect on the GMADA acquisition belt

The policy affects tens of thousands of landowners across the 11,103-acre acquisition belt spanning Greater Mohali and New Chandigarh, prospective homebuyers waiting for new housing supply, and Tricity residents who have a stake in the region's urban expansion. This 11,103-acre acquisition covers seven new townships and seven new sectors — including a commercial Sector 87 modelled on Chandigarh's Sector 17, three Aerotropolis clusters near the airport, new industrial parks, and master plan roads.

Within this belt, GMADA's Eco City-4 project — a 526.03-acre residential township across four villages in Majri sub-tehsil of Kharar tehsil (Kartarpur, Kansala, Rajgarh, and Boothgarh), notified under Section 4(1) of the LARR Act on June 2, 2026 — falls squarely within the jurisdiction covered by the July 6 policy amendment, as does the Sector 87 commercial city acquisition, which by early 2026 had progressed to the Section 11 stage after the mandatory social impact assessment was completed and cleared by the expert committee.

Prospective homebuyers and investors in the region benefit indirectly: every enhancement that brings more farmers into voluntary consent reduces litigation risk, speeds up possession, and brings construction timelines closer.

What the notification does not cover

The notification addresses the financial and entitlement terms of the policy but does not address the structural issues that have undermined implementation across every version. The three-year development deadline committed at the April 11 meeting — the first formal, fixed timeline in the history of land pooling in Punjab — is not reflected in the July 6 notification text. Without a notified, enforceable deadline with defined penalties for slippage, the commitment remains administrative rather than legal.

The village development commitment — schools, parks and dispensaries exempt from acquisition; sewerage, water and roads integrated with GMADA systems; critical gap funding for village infrastructure — while decided in April, has not been translated into a formal gazette notification.