Drive to spot 22 lakh acres

Ranchi, Nov. 14: Rubbishing the critics, revenue and land reforms minister Dulal Bhuiyan today declared that 1,900 acres will be distributed tomorrow to the landless in 22 districts.

It is just the beginning, he said. The entire exercise will be completed by August 15 next year.

Ranchi district administration, he said, has identified 650 acres for the distribution tomorrow while East Singhbhum has identified 765 acres. Thus, 1,400 acres out of 1,900 acres will be distributed tomorrow appear to be confined to just these two districts.

Claiming that huge chunks of land are being held illegally in the state, the minister vowed to identify and release them for re-distribution among the landless. He has announced one acre for each landless family below the poverty level for cultivation and 12.5 decimals of land for house-building.

While the populist measure has already drawn flak from some tribal community leaders, there are sceptics in his department. They said the government has no record of surplus land above the rural land ceiling, the Gairmazurwa surplus land made arable by local people and Khas Mahal land in urban areas.

By a conservative estimate, the state will require approximately 22 lakh acres to be distributed among 1.35 crore people (at least 22 lakh families) in the state living below the poverty level. To launch the exercise without identifying the land is deemed to be a dangerous exercise.

What is more, it is not clear how the beneficiaries will figure on the priority list. Who will be the relatively lucky landless families which will receive land tomorrow — and on what basis have they been chosen — and who will be the unlucky ones to wait for the next several years ?

The government, said revenue officials, is clueless about the land-use pattern because there has been no survey since 1937. Land records are being computerised, they said, but they can be updated and authenticated only after a physical verification of every plot.

The exercise, they confided, is meant to legalise people who have encroached upon government land. Most of the people, who will receive land-deeds tomorrow, claimed settlement officers, are already in possession of public land.

But there are others who support the move.

Jamshedpur deputy commissioner N.M. Kulkarni said there is already a provision in the Bihar Land Reforms Act to provide land to the landless. But while the performance of the district administration in redistributing land was reviewed every month earlier, the exercise had somehow been abandoned here.

Both Kulkarni and economist Ramesh Sharan believe that the plan is feasible.

Political will, they said, can make it possible to launch a drive to identify surplus land and redistribute them among the landless.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061115/asp/jamshedpur/story_7003455.asp