Telangana Peoples expectations from the new Goovernment 1. Land to the landless rural poor Various studies suggest that about fifty percent of rural households in Telangana are landless. Which means that about 25 lakh rural households (approximately 1 crore people) have no land to cultivate. Majority of them belong to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other marginalized groups. Providing a small piece of land can enable them to come out of poverty. State Government should take immediate steps to distribute all the available lands including government, ceiling surplus, bhoodan and un-utilised acquired lands. Strictly enforce existing laws which can make more land available to the poor. Further, State Government should allot funds to Women Self Help Groups to purchase lands for the all poorest women members in their groups. 2. Homestead to the homeless rural poor It’s estimated that about 6 lakh rural households in Telangana have no house of their own. They could not even take the benefits under rural housing programmes as they do not have land to build their houses. A house of one’s is a basic human right and a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Government should allot 4 guntas to each poor landless and homeless family to build a shelter and take up supplementary livelihood activities such as backyard poultry, goat-rearing, horticulture and vegetable cultivation. Government of India committed funds to states for purchasing homestead land for the poor under Indira Avas Yojana (IAY). 3. Patta with secured rights to the landowners and to those who have legitimate claim over land At least forty percent of farmers have insecure land rights in Telangana. About ten lakh poor people who have purchased small pieces of agricultural land through un-registered/plain paper transactions (Sada Bainama) but do not have patta; thousands of people who have inherited land do not have patta in their name as mutations have not been taking place regularly; about one lakh inam lands are not yet settled; thousands of poor are cultivating land in forest revenue boundary disputed areas; thousands of people are cultivating land in so called “ Deemed forest” (unsettled forests) areas; and thousands of tribal and other traditional forest dwellers either did not receive title under the Forest Rights Act or there are errors/mistakes/discrepancies in the titles issued to them; and thousand poor are cultivating government / farrari patta / ghatt number / billa number lands. The State Government should take immediate steps to a. Extend the date for receiving application for regularization of sada bainamas and issue patta. Further, Government should exempt the regularization fee for at least SCs, STs and women. b. Carryout mutations in land records and issue patta to all who have inherited land c. Settle all the inam lands d. Settle forest revenue boundary disputes and issue patta under revenue laws or title under the Forest Rights Act to the poor who are in cultivation of those lands e. Complete forest settlement process f. Issue titles to tribals and OTFDs under FRA. Rectify errors/mistakes/discrepancies in the titles. Issue title to community forest resources. g. Issue patta to eligible people who are in cultivation of government / farrari patta / ghatt number / billa number lands. 4. Updated and accessible land records Majority of entries in all the land records do not reflect the field reality. Many times, names of the pattadars and cultivators are not entered in revenue records. Further, there are many errors / mistakes / discrepancies in the revenue records. People are facing lot of hardships due to non-update land records. They are being deprived of many benefits due to them as farmers. The State Government should take immediate steps to update all the land records and make it accessible to all. 5. Re-survey The major bottleneck in resolving any land problem and the root cause for many land problems is the lack of proper survey and survey records. Law requires that re-survey should be done after every 30 years but the last survey in Telangana was done in 1940’s. Most of the survey records (village maps and tippans) are in brittle condition. The State Government should take urgent steps to re-survey all agricultural lands with the involvement of local people. 6. Effective and efficient land administration system Revenue department which deals with land administration has neither the time nor the required capacities for administering land. There is acute shortage of revenue staff at all levels. Thousands of land petitions are pending in various revenue offices. The State Government should recruit sufficient number of revenue staff at all levels, build their capacities and make them accountable on land matters. Appoint one Village Revenue Officers (VRO) to each revenue village and ensure that VRO stays in the village where he is appointed. 7. Legal support to the poor through community-based Paralegals There are at least 100 to 200 land problems in every village. About 12 lakh land problems were brought to the notice of revenue authorities just in last one year. It is estimated that about 2% of land in rural areas is affected by land disputes and about 40% of land is in problems. The poor are unable to get their land problems resolved because they lack legal awareness, cannot obtain legal aid services and cannot access adjudicating systems. The State Government should create community-based Paralegal programme for providing facilitation support to the poor in getting their land problems resolved. A Land Rights and Legal Assistance Centre should be established at every Revenue Divisional headquarter to provide the needed assistance to the poor in getting their land problems resolved. These Centres should consist of Paralegals, Community Surveyors and Lawyers. In each Mandal, 3-5 rural youth/women from the community should be identified, trained in land and legal matters and positioned as paralegals. 3-5 youth/women from the community should be identified, trained in land survey and positioned as Community Surveyors. A Coordinator with a background in law should be appointed in each Centre who will provide both functional and technical support to the Paralegals and Community Surveyors. A panel of lawyers should be constituted in each Centre to fight the land cases pertaining to the poor in both Revenue and Civil Courts. Government of India has already agreed to provide for all the necessary cost. 8. Providing land to women and protecting their rights More than three fourth of rural women (35 lakhs) are engaged in agricultural work but less than twelve percent own land. Women are denied of equal rights to access, inherit, or own land. State Government should allot agricultural land and house-sites in the name of women only; inheritance rights of women should be strictly enforced; and revenue machinery should be sensitized to respect and enforce the rights of women 9. Restore, protect and develop lands of the poor with a special focus on SCs, STs and other marginalized groups Significant percentage of land assigned to the landless poor is alienated. Five lakh acres of assigned land is alienated as per Government estimates and as per the estimates of the civil society organisations it is about 25 lakh acres. In spite of the stringent Land Transfer Regulations prohibiting transfer of lands from tribal in Scheduled Areas, thousands of acres of land have been illegally passed into the hands of the non tribals. Non-tribal population holds as much as 51 percent of the lands in the scheduled areas and more and more lands going in to the hands of non-tribal. An assessment of the cases disposed of by the LTR authorities in the agency areas of Telangana shows that more than 50% of the cases have gone in favor of the non-tribals. Out of 45,595 cases booked under LTR (1, 86, 664 acres), land is restored (on paper) in only 15, 556 cases (71, 273 acres). The Stnate Government should strictly implement the laws prohibiting land alienations and restore the land to the original owner/beneficiary. Further, Government should take measures to prevent distress sales. Also, take steps to develop the lands of the poor. 10 Legal recognition to tenant farmers As per Government estimates, there are about 4 lakh tenant farmers in Telangana. Out of them, about 2 lakh tenant farmers have received Loan eligibility cards until now. And, majority of the tenants who have received the Loan Eligibility Cards did not get crop loans. State Government should ensure that all the tenant farmers gets the Loan Eligibility Cards and receives crop loans and other benefits due to them as farmers.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 11:54:30 +0000
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