Jurisdiction
‗Land‘ is a State subject under the Constitution=> different States have evolved differently in the field of land management.
The Union can play only a limited role to play in this regard. At most they can frame policy, release funds –but implementation rests in the hands of State Government.
Some states have moved quickly by passing necessary legislations, while other states have adopted a slower and piecemeal approach in this regard.
Consequently there are considerable variations in the results achieved by different states.
Even in the same state- different regions show different rate of progress.
UN report says: ―In India there seems to be great inequality in different states regarding the land reforms.…these land reforms are not implemented in the true spirit.‖
Outdated Land records
In Ryotwari areas (Bombay State, Madras State and Assam)
Before independence, the government directly collected land revenue from farmer.
So, district officials kept up to date land records for purpose of assessment and collection of land Revenue.
Village Accountant (VA) had to update the entries every year.
The superiors in the hierarchy closely supervised the work of the VA.
The records showed who owned the different plots of land in the village, the area and boundaries of each plot, who cultivated it, what crops were grown and how much was payable to the government as land revenue.
But after independence, this system fell into disarray.
Permanent settlement areas & Princely states: There was no practice of the annual updating of records.
But after independence, state government did not pay attention to land records.
Gradually In most States, villages and field maps, records of rights and land measurement records have become obsolete.
Tenancy reforms can only be implemented if there is proper written records of tenancies and land ownership. This was not always available because most of the time land leased on oral agreement- nothing on paper.
Outdated land records = land disputes, land grabbing, court cases, landowners evade ceilings=> Land reform remains #EPICFAIL
Problem in North East
The system of land records and land administration are entirely different in the hilly and tribal tracts of north-eastern States.
In some of these areas, there was no legislation regarding land and land related matters.
Therefore, accurate land records do not exist.
Jhuming or shifting cultivation is practiced. There is no record of the area or the boundaries of plots allotted to individuals. (+ the nuisance of illegal Bangladeshi Migrant farmers)
Lack of budgetary $upport
Cost of collecting land revenue (paperwork, staff-salary, electricity etc.)= higher than the actual cash received under land revenue. Therefore, many states don‘t even bother collecting land Revenue.
Land revenue administration falls under ―non-plan‖ expenditure = doesn‘t get much budgetary allocation.
As a result, administration suffers because department won‘t hire many
officers/employees, won‘t bother building new offices, buying new photocopiers, GPS survey devices, jeeps etc.
In many places, Village accountants don‘t have a separate office. Lack of photocopiers, computers= land records not maintained properly.
Many Tahsildars didn‘t have telephones* and jeeps. So they were out of touch from day-to-day bribery and mismanagement by patwari @village level. (*we are talking about 50-90s era, when India had more toilets than mobile phones)
Result? Land records are outdated => land disputes, land grabbing and frequent litigations in courts. Poor people suffer.
Bureaucratic apathy
officers live in cities
Today, many patwaris, village officers, Mandal officers, revenue inspectors etc.
have settled in small towns/cities with their families. They sign files from home, run office through phone and rarely visit the villages.
They write inquire reports without doing spot inspections in village.
Villagers have to visit town to get their problem resolved=costly affair.
Land mafia and rich farmers get things done by paying bribes.
WB: In West Bengal there are no Village Accountants. The Circle Inspector is the functionary of the Land Administration Department at the lowest level. People have to go to his office for various purposes.
bogus training
Revenue officers are trained better in court procedures than in dispute-resolution in a humane manner.
Hence they give more emphasis on form rather than content, on letter rather than spirit.
They rely on documents, stamp papers, affidavits but don‘t bother to make field visit, talk with people to find the ground reality.
Changed focus
Today, District officers (namely DM & SDM) mainly focused on
Conversion of Agri-land into industrial land
SEZ/industrialization related matter
law and order maintenance
How to chow down money from MNREGA, IAY etc. (or prevent it)
Hence, land reform programs=low priority for senior officers @District level. They tend to ignore the Tehsildar/Patwari‘s inefficiency/corruption.
Tarikh pe Tarik
Because of above reasons: a villager cannot get problem solved through village/tehsil level officer. He has to approach the court. But
1. Majority of revenue courts continue to function in English language, but villagers don‘t know English.
2. Revenue Courts already choked with thousands of cases related to land. Poor litigant cannot afford making trips and hiring lawyers
Result? In most cases poor litigant will compromise with the land mafia/rich farmer/ex-zamindar or just stop pursuing the matter.
no
coordination
Many state departments keep their own land-database e.g. Agriculture, drinking water, irrigation, animal husbandry, forest etc. But there is no linkage amongst these different data base.
In short, land reform= low priority for state government. All the new initiatives (Computerization of records, Forest rights Act have come from Union.)
Lack of Votebank
(From 50-90s)
Target audience for land reforms= tenants, landless agricultural labourers, SC/ST.
But they were largely unorganized (Except WB and Kerala). They were unable to bring required pressure on the government for speedy implementation of the land reforms.
For political workers at grassroots are indifferent to land reforms because it was easy to sway the ignorant voters on desired political line according to religion and caste. The Ignorance, poverty, illiteracy and inegalitarian system has favoured such petty politics.
Therefore land reform was more of a rhetoric rather than real agenda of governments.
Powerless Panchyat
Panchayats don‘t have sufficient revenue sources of their own.
Money flow: Centrally sponsored schemes (named after you know who)=>DRDA+Line deparments @State government=>Panchayat.
Result? Panchayats are too weak to do anything about land reforms. + The proxy influence of rural elites stonewall any land reform initiatives.
Lack of Civil Society/NGO action
In the noteworthy movements by civil society/NGO for land
reforms= Bhoodan/Gramdan, land satyagraha etc. But all these things happened before 90s. Today civil society/NGOs very vocal about transparency, anti-corruption, anti-rape laws, nuclear projects, mining rights etc. but land reforms hardly get any attention. Why?
1. It is easy to get national-international awards/funding, media-recognition, political attention in these new topics.
2. Just like ―secularism‖, the ―land distribution‖ also has lost its original meaning. So, if an NGO talks too much about land redistribution- he might be labelled as naxal-sympethizer.
3. In land reform sector: (1) computerization of land records=done by district administration and (2) for forest rights act=>done through gram Sabha. So
Jholachhap NGOs don‘t see opportunities for getting government projects/funds to mint ca$h, unlike in the schemes for under HIV/child-labour/education/SHG type activities.
The Naxal Angle:
The present Left wing extremism (LWE) has roots at two places:
West Bengal (1967) @Naxalbari
Andhra (1949) @Telengana and @Srikakulam.
At that time, main cause of these movement = exploitation by zamindar/landlords/forest contractors. But In the heydays of naxal movement, focus of the state governments shifted from agrarian/land reforms to law and order preservation. As a result:
1. Many villagers remained landless.
2. Rise of upper caste militia/private armies like Ranvir Sena, Kunwar Sena etc.
3. Within village, Lack of growth in non-agricultural sector.
4. Tribal land alienation by mining mafia.
All these factors further helped the Maoists to recruit more cadres from villages. District officials don‘t goto Maoist affected areas, look @all villagers with suspicion etc.etc.etc.
Ultimately, land reform cannot be carried out.
Thus, Left wing extremism (LWE) and Lack of Land Reform (LLR) have formed a vicious cycle.
Appu
Task Force on Agrarian Relations set up by the Planning Commission headed by P. S.
Appu. (1972 )Made following observations 1. Lack of political will=no tangible progress
2. The decentralization of power to the rural sector was seen by the politicians as a threat to their national prominence.
3. The erstwhile superior tenants belonging mostly to the upper and middle castes have benefittd.
4. (but) A majority of the agricultural laborers =politically unorganized=could not benefit from the land reform measures.
5. Land reform Acts were poorly drafting= many loopholes and litigations.
6. Land records were outdated, most states didnot bother updating.
7. Five year plans only gave lip service for land reforms but didn‘t allot significant funds.
8. Land reform has practically disappeared from the agenda of most political parties.
but This is an inevitable consequence of the far reaching changes that have taken place in social and economic fields;