Chandigarh, May 5 -- Nearly nine months after scrapping its controversial Land Pooling Policy (LPP) 2025 amid stiff opposition from farmers and political parties, the Punjab government is back with a revised framework, assuring enhanced benefits and greater safeguards to landowners. The department of housing and urban development has prepared a draft of the new policy, seen by HT, which is expected to be tabled at the upcoming cabinet meeting for approval. The new draft proposes a series of farmer-centric measures aimed at making land acquisition more transparent, flexible and equitable. A senior official in the department confirmed that the revised draft was in its final stages. "The draft has incorporated several changes based on feedback from stakeholders and is now ready to be placed before the cabinet," the official said. The original policy had brought the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government under severe criticism, with opposition parties and farmer bodies dubbing it a "looting scheme" aimed at robbing farmers of their land. The AAP had hit out at opposition leaders for spreading propaganda against the policy, with party leaders describing it as farmer-friendly and a big push for planned urban development. But with the controversy not dying down, and the Punjab and Haryana high court also imposing a stay, the government eventually withdrew the policy on August 11, 2025. In the largest land acquisition since 1966, the state government had planned to acquire 65,533 acres across 21 cities and towns in the state to develop both industrial and residential zones. The policy targeted major urban centres, including Ludhiana (24,000 acres), Mohali (6,000 acres), and Amritsar (4,464 acres), along with Patiala, Jalandhar, Bathinda and Sangrur....