DW BUREAU Seeking to serve the twin objectives of preventing the land owners from resorting to distress sale of land, and making land available to different departments of the state government for setting up essential public services, the Haryana Revenue and Disaster Management today notified the policy for creating Land Bank. According to the policy, the Revenue Department will consolidate such chunks of surplus land as had been acquired by the departments under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (Central Act 1 of 1894) but do not need now, and provide it to the departments that need them most. It will also make things easy for the state government which has been experiencing a lot of difficulty in making land available to the departments. Giving further information in this regard Financial Commissioner Revenue and Additional Chief Secretary, Sh. Sanjeev Kaushal said that it has been observed that landowners at times have to make distress sale of their land especially those living abroad due to slump in market or due to pandemic, pressure of middlemen in the market a plethora of other reasons. The bank will offer a win-win situation for departments and land owners/farmers, and the state government. While the former will be able to sell land at a competitive price, the latter would not have to look the other way when any department knocks at their door for land for setting up public utilities. He said that the bank would provide land to departments for setting up essential services, including water works, power sub-stations, colleges and other specialized institutions of higher learning, including universities and polytechnics etc. (editor@dailyworld.in)