India, Aug. 11 -- The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab has withdrawn the state's land pooling policy that had been brought in recently to acquire around 65,000 acres of land in 164 villages to develop residential and industrial zones. The withdrawal on Monday came just days after the high court ordered an interim stay on it.

The policy, defended dearly by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and other top AAP leaders, was already facing political opposition and widespread protests by farmer unions who saw it as potentially damaging to their way of life. The now-scrapped policy said a landowner would be given 1,000 square yards in a residential plot and 200 square yards of commercial land in fully developed land in lieu of one acre of l...