The National Green Tribunal (NGT) ono Friday extended its interim stay on the Punjab Government’s policy allowing approval and regularisation of low-impact green habitats (LIGH) in areas abutting forests.The stay means the Housing and Urban Development Department, which notified the policy, cannot grant permission for construction of farmhouses in the affected areas until the stay is vacated.The tribunal had granted the interim stay on December 18, 2025. The Bench comprising NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert member Dr Afroz Ahmad extended it while hearing an ongoing case filed by the Council of Engineers, represented by Kapil Dev, Ganesh Khurana, Mohit Jain and Vikas Arora.The petitioners have challenged the 2025 policy, alleging that it violates Supreme Court directions concerning land taken out of the purview of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900.The state counsel sought vacation of the stay, submitting that the policy had been amended to disallow commercial activity and that demarcation of PLPA and non-PLPA land had been completed. The NGT, however, asked the state to file a reply and fixed the next date of hearing for December 14.The policy covers nearly 55,000 hectares of land that had been taken out of the purview of the PLPA across Mohali, Ropar, Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur districts.The petitioners have alleged that the policy was aimed at benefiting VIPs, including politicians and serving and retired bureaucrats. They also alleged that it was introduced to regularise farmhouses belonging to influential people in areas abutting forests with rich flora and fauna.The Punjab Tourism Department, in an affidavit filed before the NGT, stated that the state government had decided to exclude areas removed from the provisions of the PLPA from its Farm Stay Policy.According to the affidavit, the Farm Stay Policy will not cover land released or delisted under the August 26, 2011, notification or areas protected under the PLPA.However, the Housing and Urban Development Department has been pursuing a farmhouse policy covering delisted areas.The Tourism Department excluded the delisted areas from the Farm Stay Policy after a petition was filed before the NGT alleging that the policy would provide a “backdoor entry” for construction of farmhouses in the ecologically fragile Shivalik-Kandi belt.