States told to step up land reforms, rehab policy

New Delhi, June 11: The Centre has asked state governments to speed up implementation of land reforms starting with computerisation of land records in rural areas and formulating a comprehensive rehabilitation policy.

The state governments have been asked to identify one zilla in each state where the computerisation programme could be taken up as a pilot project, official sources said.

Alongside with land records, computerisation would be available for issuance of income, caste and tax certificates.

Though the work in this regard had started in 1988, it had not been taken up in right earnest till now, the sources said.

Land reforms have been on the national agenda of rural reconstruction since Independence. While the task of abolition of intermediary tenures and interests have been completed in the country, the other aspects of land reforms had been put on the back burner.

The Rural Development Ministry has from time to time undertaken a review of the progress under the land reform programme jointly with Revenue Secretaries and Ministers of states and Union territories here.

At this week's review of the progress under the land reform components with Revenue Secretaries of various states here, Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh stressed on the need to focus on strengthening of revenue administration and upgradation of land records in the rural areas which account for about three-fourths of the country's population. The initiative would be funded by the Centre and the states in the ratio of 50:50.

In particular, the Minister mentioned the states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura which have put land reforms on the fast track and urged other states to emulate the West Bengal example. He said as part of the programme, urgency was being imparted to the task of formulating a rehabilitation policy and states have been asked to deliberate on this as it would replace the already existing policy.

For the first time it was sought to ascertain the exact number of the home-stead landless population in the country.

So far, the home-stead landless had been lumped together with the landless and no attempt had been made to differentiate one from the other.

States were told that surplus land, wastelands and bhoodan land be distributed among the landless. As a result of the implementation of land ceiling laws since 1972 in 19 states and three union territories, the total quantum of land declared surplus in the country was 68.38 lakh acres, of which about 49.40 lakh acres had been distributed to 53.50 lakh beneficiaries. Among them, 39 per cent belonged to the Scheduled Castes and 16 Scheduled Tribes, the sources said.

Further, the representatives were asked to undertake survey on waterbodies as under the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme water conservation was accorded top priority.

Simultaneously, jatropha, which held enormous potential as an alternative fuel source, should be propagated in wasteland areas and its cultivation stepped up from 5 per cent to 25 per cent.

It was hoped to achieve 2 water bodies for each village and ensure sustainable employment as part of waterbody conservation.

UNI