Contents 3.0 Objectives 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Land Reforms in Post Independence Period 3.2.1 Land Reforms through Five Year Plans 3.2.2 Abolition of Land Intermediaries 3.2.3 Tenancy Reforms 3;2.3 Land Ceiling 3.3 Current Scenario of Land Reforms 3.3.1 Ownership Right to Tenants 3.3.2 Ceiling of Surplus Land 3.3.3 Consolidation of Landholdings 3.3.4 Computerization of Land Records 3.4 Let Us Sum Up 3.5 Key Words 3.6 Suggested Readings 3.0 OBJECTIVES he study of this unit will enable you to: comprehend the constitutional Developments towards Land Reforms in the States of India through Five Year Plans; explain the implications of the constitutional developments; understand the present developments in Land Reforms in India; and become aware of the progress made in the computerization of land records. 3.1 INTRODUCTION As we have seen a number of Acts have been enacted towards implementing land reform measures in the country, with each state having different acts with different provisions. These provisions have helped the tenants in getting certain rights and also in reducing their dependency on the landlords. In this unit we will try to get deeper insights into the various initiatives taken by the Union and State Governments towards providing ownership rights to tenants, consolidation of land ceiling and distribution of surplus land. Further, this unit will also deliberate upon the progress made towards systematizing the land records through Computerization of Land Records (CLR). 3.2 LAND REFORMS IN POST INDEPENDENCE PERIOD Land reforms initiatives and actions taken by the Union Government and the State Governments since Independence can be studied in two broad categories: 3.2.1 Land Reforms through Five Year Plans The First Five Year Plan (1951-56) is credited to have developed a broad approach towards systematic land reforms in India. The Land Reforms as a part of the /' planning period was a step-by-step process starting with abolition of intermediaries, tenancy reforms and ceiling on excess landholdings. 3.2.2 Abolition of Land Intermediaries The plan suggested developing mechanism so that these intermediaries could be abolished. At the time of Independence there were various categories of the land which was under direct control of land intermediaries: (a) Village land, forest land; (b) Land on which the intermediaries had right to either cultivate or let it out to others, better known as Home-Fms; (c) Land other than home-farms under the control of intermediaries for personal cultivation; (d) Land held by the tenants directly from the intermediaries, and (e) Land held by sub-tenants. In order to remove land intermediaries, following steps were taken by the Government. Village lands and forest under the control of intermediaries were taken over by the State Governments for land management and development, while other categories of non-agricultural land homestead were to be retained by the intermediaries. In the case of Home-Fms and land for personal cultivation of intermediaries, these land were left with the intermediaries in some States, while in some other States these land were taken over by the State Governments. In some States no extra land in addition to their present Home-Ems and land were provided to the land intermediaries for personal cultivation. The abolition of intermediaries . was compensated with payment of cash for the loss of their rights of tenancy land, as well as common land. In the case of land held by the tenants under the direct control of intermediaries, most of the States tenants-in-chief landholding was brought under direct control of State and land ownership rights were acquired by the States. In some of the Statestenants were conferred permanent and transferable rights for the landholdings. In other States, either large permanentltnnsferable rights were conferred to tenants or rents were reduced by a considerable amount. 3.2.3 Tenancy Reforms While conferment of right of occupancy to all tenants was recommended, permission of personal cultivation in the case where family holding did not exceed three. The owners should have right of resumption of personal cultivation in a maximum period of five years, fixation of land rent not to be exceeded 1/4th or l/Sh of the total land produce and leasing of the land in future should provide adequate protection to tenants for a period of five to ten years, with the provision of lease renewal. There were a number of factors which contributed to tenancy problems in ryotwari areas and areas of peasant proprietorship. These were: a) Land intermediaries took very little interest in cultivation of land marked for personal cultivation and they preferred leasing these land to tenants. b) Landholdings to tenants were leased to sub-tenants. c) In the ryotwari areas and areas of peasant proprietorship, land were actua!ly cultivated by the tenants. To overcome these kinds of problems, the following set of actions were suggested: a) Rent Regulation of the Land: The Plan recommended that rent of the land should not exceed 1/4th or l/Sh of the total produce from the land under consideration. However, rent variation was between 1/4th to 1/31d in different states. b) Security of Land Tenure: The security of tenure of the land for tenants was Land Reforms: Constitutional Status and State Legislation-I1 3.2.4 Land Ceiling The principle for ceiling on the landholdings was suggested that there should be an absolute limit of the landholdings which an individual may hold. States were to be given power to adopt a limit on the landholdings, depending upon their agrarian history. It was also suggested that there should be a census of landholdings, so that the. government has relevant data to exercise ceiling on landholdings. It was also suggested that land should be classified in two different groups, such as Land under Cultivation of Tenants-at-will, and land under direct control and management of owners. It was suggested that tenants should become owners of the land which they cultivate, while for the land in the second category i.e. land under direct management of owners, should be further divided into two groups. The first group was that of land which on break-up will lead to fall in production, while the second group of the land was the land which does not meet the above criteria. It was suggested that second group of the land was to be taken over by the States and given for cultivation to agricultural workers. Land Reforms in Independent India- linked with the owner's right to resume the land for personal cultivation. To overcome this set of problems, the,Plan suggested following.courses of actions: No further rights of resumption to landowners and permanent and heritage rights of land were granted to tenants. The landlords were granted permission to resume a limited area of land and was left a minimum area of the land for tenants. Limits on the extension of resumption of the land to landlords for personal cultivation were imposed. The First Five Year Plan also recommended ownership rights to tenants for non-resumable areas of the land. Tenancy laws vary from State to State and important features on tenancy related different aspects of some of the States are summarized in Table 3.1. Table 3.1: Tenancy Provisions in some of the States of India States Tenancy Provisions Punjab and Haryana No ban on leasing of land and no right to tenants over land. Rajasthan Land can be leased for a period of five years and further sub- lease by the tenants for one year. Uttar Pradesh Lease is prohibited; exemption for widows, unmarried women, military persons, students and disabled persons. Assam No restrictions on leasing of land. B ihar Leasing is prohibited except for persons with disabilities. Orissa Lease is prohibited. West Bengal Leasing is prohibited, but share-cropping is allowed with some restrictions. Guj arat Leasing is prohibited. Maharashtra No ban on tenancy and tenant has right to purchase land within one year of the commencement of tenancy. Madhya Pradesh No ban on future lease, but all the past leases have been abolished. Karnataka Leasing in general is prohibited except for some categories of seamen and soldiers. Andhra Pradesh Two types of leasing are practised. In the Andhra region, leasing is permitted .and regulated. In the Telengana region, leasing by large landholdings is prohibited, but allowed for small holdings I (below three family holdings.) The Second Five Year Plan suggested some steps towards ceiling on the land holdings. Land Reforms: It recommended that ceiling should be applied to owned land under personal cultivation Constitutional Status and State Legislation-I1 including the land under permanent rights and heritable rights. It was also suggested that the ceiling should be applied to the whole area of the farmer and its f ai l y. On the questions regarding the level of ceiling, the Plan suggested that ceiling should be three times of the family holdings of the land. The Plan left to the discretion to the State Governments to decide on the area which comprises family holdings, depending upon the conditions in the region, type and classs of soil, level of irrigation etc. It was also suggested that ceiling may not be necessary at that stage in areas where cultivable wastelands are available, but sufficient number of cultivators is not available , for cultivation. Some categories of farms were exempted from the ceiling, such as tea, coffee and rubber plantations, orchards of compact area, farms engaged in cittle breeding, dairying etc., sugarcane farms owned and operated by sugar manufacturing units etc. Some of the important areas of land reforms considered by the nine Five Year Plans during the period 1951-2002 are summarized below in Table 3.2. Table 3.2: Land Reforms Issues Deliberated by Five Year Plans Five Year Plan Issues of Land Reforms - Plan Actions 1) Increase in Cultivation Area a) Land reforms to be interlinked with First (1951-56) 2) Large land holdings of uncultivated lands cultivation and effective,use of land by abolishing intermediaries and permanent right and heritable rights to tenants Second (1956-61) 1) Productivity of agricultural land is poor. a) Soil Conservation 2) Importance of irrigated agriculture b) Implementation of land reforms measures Third(1961-66) 1) Food Security for the masses a) Launch of Area Development Programmes 2) Wasteland under irrigation and b) Soil Surveys and conservation cultivation c) Integrated land development policy Fourth( 1969-74) 1) Food Secunty a) Irrigation and soil conservation; dry lands 2) Emphasis on food crops and enhanced and wastelands capacity of land use to ensure food security b) High crop yield 3) Large land holdings and less allocations c) Lai d reforms with land ceiling acts and of lands consolidation of land holdings Fifth(1974-79) 1) Poor land Management . a ) Drought-prone and Desert Area 2) Increase in drought prone ,and affected Development Programme to be launched areas b) Emphasis on soil conservation and dry farming Sixth (1980-85) 1) Ineffective utilization of land a) Effective and efficient land and water 2) L i n g of green revolution with effective management programmes in drought prone cultivation areas Seventh(1985-90) Soil erosion, land degradation, a) Emphasis on Soil and Water Conservation deforestation b) Launch of wasteland development programmes c) Effective land management programmes a) Greater importance to watershed approach Eighth (1992-97) 1 ) People' s participation in land and its linkage with soil conservation management at the local level 2) Degradation of land Ninth (1997- 1) Land Degradation a) Cultivation of underutilized and wastelands 2002) 2) Integration of watershed programmes b) Importance of Panchayati Raj Institutions in with other schemes land management at the village level 3) Increasing gap between potential crop c) Effective land legislation acts yield and actual yield 3.3 CURRENT SCENARIO OF LAND REFORMS In the previous sections and blocks we have analysed land reforms initiatives and measures taken by the Government towards effective land reforms under the guided principles of Five Year Plans. We have also examined the implementation of land reform measures through abolition of land intermediaries, tenancy reforms, execution of land ceiling acts and consolidation of landholdings. It is evident that the land reform is a continuous process and reform measures are still being undertaken by the Government. The Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, is the nodal agency in coordinating the various activities towards effective implementation of land reforms. Now we will try to understand the current scenario of land reforms under the broad h'eadings of Tenants, Rights over Landholdings, Ceiling on the Excessive Land, and Consolidation of Landholdings, and Computerization of Land Records. Check Your Progress 1 Note: i) Space is given below for each question for your answer. ii) Check your answer(s) with the text 1) What do you mean by the security of tenures? ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... 2) Mention important features of tenancy law in the Uttar Pradesh ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................... 3.3.1 Ownership Rights to Tenants Legislative measures have been taken up in the states of India, in order to provide ownership rights to tenants, protecting tenants from willful eviction from their land and allowing the cultivating tenants to acquire ownership of the land on payment of tha compensation. Sub-tenancies in almost all the states is prohibited, except in some cases of widows, members of armed forces, minors, unmarried women and disabled persons. The initiatives of the Government has resulted to protection of ownership rights of 124.22 lakh tenants over an area of 156.30 lakh acres of land. The Table 3.3 below gives a Statewise summarized account of the number of ownership rights protected and area accrued to tenants through protection of rights. Table 3.3: Protection of Ownership Rights and Area Accrued to Tenants State/UT No. of Tendhts (in Lakhs) Area Accrued (Lakh Acres) Andhra Pradesh 1.07 5.95 Arunachal Pradesh System not prevalent Assam 29.08 3 1.75 Bihar* NR NR Delhi ' NR NR Goa NR NR Gujarat 12.76 25.92 Haryana Tenancy not prevalent Himachal Pradesh 4.0 1 NR Jammu and Kashmir 6.1 NR Kamataka 6.05 26.32 Kerala 28.42 14.5 Madhya Pradesh# Tenancy not prevalent Maharashtra 14.92 42.9 Manipur NR NR Meghalaya Nil Nil &ram Nil Nil Nagaland NR NR Orissa 1.65 0.98 Punjab NR NR Rajasthan 0.18 NR Sikkim NR NR Tamil Nadu 4.98 6.95 Tripura 0.14 0.39 Uttar PradeshA NR NR West Bengal 14.6 NR A&N Island Nil Nil Chandigarh NR NR Lakshadweep Neg Neg Daman & Diu NR NR D&N Haveli 0.26 0.64 Pondicheny Neg Neg Total 124.22 156.3 Land Reforms: Constitutional Status and State Legislation-I1 NR: Not reported Source: Anaual Report (2005-06), Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India * including Jharkhand # including Chhattisgarh A including Uttaranchal 3.3.2 Ceiling Surplus Land Another initiative of the Government towards land refonns is seen in the distribution of ceiling surplus lands to the beneficiaries. A total of 73.36 lakh acres of land in the country has been declared surplus and out of this 64.97 lakh acres have been taken under possession and of which 57.46 lakh acres have been distributed to the beneficiaries. A State, wise distribution of ceiling surplus land and the beneficiaries is tabulated in the Table 3.4. Land Reforms in Independent India Table 3.4: Distribution of Ceiling Surplus Land (as on 31" March 2005) S t a m Area Area Taken Area Distributed Total No. of Declared Possession to Individual Beneficiaries Surplus (in Acres) Beneficiary (in Acres) (in Acres) Andhra Pradesh 789910 646521 582188 525663 . Assam 613405 575337 545875 445862 Bihar 415447 390752 - 306964 379528 Delhi 1132 394 394 654 Gujarat 226043 161716 146578 33312 Haryana 107067 103171 102388 29346 Himachal Pradesh 316556 304895. 6167 6259 1 Jammu and Kashmir 455575 450000 450000 450000 Karnataka 268478 164675 123412 33727 Kerala 141427 96851 68745 166814 Madhya Pradesh 298763 260323 186942 74705 Maharashtra 708098 65003 1 613%5 135301 Manipur 1830 1685 1682 1258 Orissa 180301 168035 158030 141 155 Punjab 223 115 105858 104257 28582 Rajasthan 611912 570290 463547 82441 Tamil Nadu 202795 194118 183670 145608 Tripura 1995 1944 1598 1424 Uttar Pradesh 366147 335525 260509 300163 West Bengal 1394180 1 3041 85 1088445 275979 1 D&N Haveli 9406 9305 685 1 3353 Pondicheny 2326 1286 1070 1464 Total 7335908 6496897 5403277 5746410 Source: Anaual Report (2005-06), Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India 3.3.3 Consolidation of Landholdings Land reform policy includes the consolidation of fragmented agricultural landholdings as its integral part. In order to have planned development of villages and enhanced agricultural production, due emphasis has been laid in every Five Year Plan on the consolidation of fragmented landholdings. Accordingly the States have enacted legislations and initiated work towards consolidation of landholdings. States such as Uttar Pradesh and Haryana need to be mentioned due to their significant success. Consolidation of landholdings in UP is in the process in about 9,000 to 10,000 villages. So far a total area of 1633.47 lakhs acres has been consolidated all over India. The Table 3.5 below gives the State-wise consolidation of landholdings. Table 3.5: Consolidation of Landholdings in the States of India 1 Stalp/Ln. Area Consolidated (in lakh acres) I Andhra Pradesh . 8.18" 1 1 Bihar I 96.05* I I Delhi I 2.33 I Gujarat 69.98* Haryana 104.38* Himachal Pradesh 29.91 Jammu and Kashmir 1.37* Karnataka 26.76# Madhya Pradesh 95.53 Maharashtra 526.50$ Orissa 26.74 Punj ab 121.81 Rajasthan 42.30 @ UttarPradesh 481.63 Total 1633.47 *Scheme discontinued in Andhra Pradesh from 1996 and in Bihar and Gujarat from 1992. # Consolidation of Holding Act 1966 has been repealed in 1991. @ Scheme discontinued from 1965. $ Implementation of Scheme stopped with effect from 1.4.1993. Source: Annaual Report (2005-06), Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India 3.3.4 Computerization of Land Records Computerization of Land Records (CLR) was started in 1988-89 as a centrally sponsored scheme with 100% financial assistance. This project was started in order to remove the problems existing in the manual system of maintaining and updating of records. It was initiated as pilot project in 8 districts namely Rangareddy (Andhra Pradesh), Sonitpur (Assam), Singhbhum (Bihar), Gandhi Nagar (Gujarat), Morena (Madhya Pradesh), 'Wardha (Maharashtra), Mayurbhanj (Orissa) and Dungarpur (Rajasthan) . The objectives of the centrally sponsored scheme are as follows: i) To implement comprehensive and transparent land information system, capturing the entire work flow of land records maintenance with a provision to store, retrieve and process land records data containing ownership, tenancy rights, crop details; land revenue, source of irrigation, mutation, its updation and dispute resolution. ii) On demand distribution of computerized copies of Record of Rights to the laridowners at reasonable charges, with a provision of online mutation module for ownership changes, seasonal crop updation at Tehsil level. iii) Provision of legal sanctity to computer generated certificates of land records title documents after authentication by authorized revenue officials. iv) To generate and integrate various levels of data for purposes of planning, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes. Analysis of State-wise achievements of the CLR is as given in Table 3.6 below. Land Reforms: Constitutional Status and State Legislation-I1 Land Reforms in Independent India Table 3.6: Analysis of State/ UT wise Achievements in CLR State Achievements Goa Completion of 100% land records computerization in 11 Taluks. Automation of mutation work flow and issue of updated copies of Records of Rights to land owners. Accord of legal sanctity to computerized copies. Karnataka Complete work flow automated. Issue of RTC in all the 171 Taluks manually stopped. Legal sanctity accorded to Record of Rights (ROR). Tamil Nadu CLR system, known as Tamil Nilam, operational in all the 206 Taluks. Regular mutation and updation of land records through computers. Manual system of issue of ROR stopped. Guj arat CLR called e-Dhara, operational in 226 Taluks. Presence of notified computerized copies of ROR as valid documents. Digital data for all the districts present on the net. Madhya Pradesh Computerized copies of ROR being distributed in all the 257 Tehsils on demand. Efforts are on to effect and register all mutations on Tehsil computer and distribute only computerized copies of ROR. Oiissa ROR is being distributed on demand in 122 Tehsils out of 171. West Bengal Computerised copy of Khatian is being distributed to $1 land owners in all the Blocks. Rajasthan ROR are being issued in 237 Tehsils out of 241. In remaining four Tehsils, data entry is in progress. ' Andhra Pradesh Basic data entry work in 1108 Mnadals completed. Provisions made to distribute copies of ROR from 308 Mandals. Pondicherry Initial data entry work completed in all Taluks and verification work is in progress. Skkim Data entry work of basic land records completed and two sub-divisions have started distributing updated copies of ROR. Chhattisgarh Setting up of computer centres in 98 Tehsils. Computerized ROR distributed only in 11 Tehsils. Kerala Initial land record data entry completed. Updation of backlog data remaining. Computer centres set up in 63 Taluks. Maharashtra Basic data entry work complete in all the districts. Data verification work is in progress. Uttar Pradesh Initial data entry work is complete. In 5 Tehsils data verification work completed and out of these five, two Tehsils have started distributing updated computerized copies of ROR. Land Reforms: Constitutional Status and State Legislation-I1 Haryana Data entry work of land records complete in 7045 villages and verification work is in progress. Issue of copies of computerzed copies of ROR is in process in seven Tehsils. Himachal Pradesh Data entry work is under progress in 10 districts. One Tehsil each of Shimla and Una have been operationalized for on-demand computerized copies of ROR NCT of Delhi Khatauni details of seven revenue districts out of nine have been computerized and verification work is in progress. Darnan and Dadar & Basic data entry work is in progress. Nagar Haveli Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Basic data entry work is under progress. Mizoram, Manipur, Bihar and Tripura J&K, Punjab, Jharkhand, Work of CLR is yet to get momentum. Nagaland, Uttaranchal Meghalaya, Lakshadweep Scheme of CLR has not started yet. and Diu Check Your Progress 2 Note: i) Space is given below for each question for your answer. ii) Check your answer(s) with the text 1) What do you mean by consolidation of landholdings? ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... ................. i ............................................................................................. 2) What are major objectives behind computerisation of land records? ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... ........................................ i ..................................................................... ............................................................................................................... 3.4 LET US SUM UP The five year plans formulated and executed by the Government of India laid a lot of stress on initiating measures for systematizing land reform process in various states. As a result, a broad approach towards systematic land reforms was developed and a step by step process was introduced with the Abolition of Intermediaries, Tenancy Reforms and Ceiling on excess landholdings. The developments in the past have been mainly related to initiating measures for providing tenants, rights over landholdings, ceiling on the excessive lands, and consolidation of landholdings and Land Reforms in Independent India computerization of land records. Computerization of Land Records, which was started in 1988-89, as a centrally sponsored scheme with 100% financial assistance. Initiated as a pilot project in 8 districts of India, it has been implemented in almost all the states, although the progress has been varying from state to state. 3.5 KEY WORDS Sub-tenant : A person who get land to cultivate from a tenant. Consdidation : Consolidation of fragmented agricultural landholdings. 3.6 SUGGESTED READINGS Haque, T., and Sirohi, A.S. (1986), Agrarian Reforms and Institutional Changes in India, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi. Thorner, Daniel (1976). The Agrarian Prospect in India, Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. Constitution of India (htt~://lawmin.nic.in/coi~contents.htm) Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India (http:I/rural.nic.in/htm) Joshi, P.C, Land Reforms in India, in Rural Sociology in India, pp. 445-475. Annual Report (2005-06), Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, New Delhi. Annexure 1 Funds Released and Utilised under CLR 9th Plan 10th Plan Up to 1997- 1998- 1999- 2000- 2001- 2002- Total Funds State1 UT 8th Plan 98 99 00 01 02 03 2003-04 2004-05 Releases Utlllsed Andhra Pradesh 433 0 829.9 174.05 0 0 389.41 531.5 2357.86 1355 45 Arunachal Pradesh 0 0 0 0 75.3 - 0 75.3 57.08 Assarn 238 97.5 0 0 0 0 335.5 212 Bihar 150 367.5 30.5 0 0 0 100 648 158 Gujarat 165 75 24.61 79.68 195.8 248.31 912.66 372.5 495 2568.56 1391.85 Goa 40 0 0 63.5 12.3 37.5 153.3 118.14 Haryana 275 19 15 56 92.4 110 567.4 436.36 Hirnachal Pradesh 205 0 6.6 28.6 0 95 46.7 81.4 438 901.3 443.45 Nagaland 0 0 0 25.15 60 85.15 8.25 15 193.55 127.15 Orissa 522.5 - 0 20.5 171.12 387.7 657.3 658.28 277 230 2924.4 2294.14 Punjab 198.62 52.5 0 31.5 0 0 282.62 69.84 Rajasthan 503 0 43.6 0 888.34 313.67 1748.61 1394.45 Sikkirn 1 32 1 0 ( 22.4 1 12.8 1 0 1 50.83 1 82.7 1 200.73 1 , 129.77 Tamil Nadu 453 60 a 30.98 237.29 611.5 68.36 347.15 406.5 605.2 2819.98 1413.97 Tripura 100 75.8 0 3 8 0 130 148 491.8 289.22 Uttar Pradesh 664 247.5 142.5 0 278.6 247 376 1955.6 1370.98 West Bengal 590 173 300.78 110 457.4 580.17 355 2566.35 2142.2 Chhattisgarh 0 0 0 0 0 156.8 281.1 164 601.9 412.9 Jharkhand 0 1 280.8 1 1 547.2 1 828 1 725.76 Percentage Utilisation 57 -2 76