Eye on LS polls: Govt comes out with draft report on land reforms
25 Jun 2013 4:36 AM IST
With an eye on elections, the government has come out with its draft report on National Land Reforms Policy. According to the National Sample Survey Organisation(NSSO) data 2003-04, there are about 41.63% of households that do not own land other than the homestead. In its draft report, the government has proposed land pool in order to provide homestead land, minimum agricultural land, and shelter to every family. ‘The smallest unit in this case will be a village or a cluster of villages, as the case may be, because it is not realistic to expect people to migrate long distances for obtaining their rights. The utilisation of the land pool for the purpose of homestead land or agriculture shall begin as soon as the pool is created at the village / cluster leve,’ states the report.
To distribute the land the draft report proposes that the allotment of land should be made in the name of women member in the eligible family. The list of beneficiaries should be prepared with the approval of Gram Sabha. The list of beneficiaries should be made available to the public and this should be done in a time bound manner. The government in its report has also proposed that every state should revise its ceiling limits, if the existing limit is more than 5-10 acres in the case of irrigated land and 10-15 acres for non-irrigated land. The report further states that exemptions to religious, educational, charitable, research and industrial organizations as well as plantations and aqua farms should be strictly discontinued. These institutions shall not be allowed to use more than one unit of 15 acres.
‘All States shall impose ceiling not only on ‘Ownership’ of land holdings but also on ‘Operational’ land holdings to prevent concentration of large tracts of land through lease-in. Under no circumstance shall a person/institution/organisation be allowed to own more land than the ceiling,’ states the report.
In view of the lands being donated to religious institutions, the report proposes that the states shall prepare an inventory of all endowment and wakf lands, remove all illegal occupations and shall take steps to lease out the lands to landless poor on equitable terms of lease. Such an action will be a win-win situation for both the landless poor and the institutions, as the institutions will get an assured income every year to sustain them.
To distribute the land the draft report proposes that the allotment of land should be made in the name of women member in the eligible family. The list of beneficiaries should be prepared with the approval of Gram Sabha. The list of beneficiaries should be made available to the public and this should be done in a time bound manner. The government in its report has also proposed that every state should revise its ceiling limits, if the existing limit is more than 5-10 acres in the case of irrigated land and 10-15 acres for non-irrigated land. The report further states that exemptions to religious, educational, charitable, research and industrial organizations as well as plantations and aqua farms should be strictly discontinued. These institutions shall not be allowed to use more than one unit of 15 acres.
‘All States shall impose ceiling not only on ‘Ownership’ of land holdings but also on ‘Operational’ land holdings to prevent concentration of large tracts of land through lease-in. Under no circumstance shall a person/institution/organisation be allowed to own more land than the ceiling,’ states the report.
In view of the lands being donated to religious institutions, the report proposes that the states shall prepare an inventory of all endowment and wakf lands, remove all illegal occupations and shall take steps to lease out the lands to landless poor on equitable terms of lease. Such an action will be a win-win situation for both the landless poor and the institutions, as the institutions will get an assured income every year to sustain them.
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