Landmine called land ceiling amendment

Thousands of acres of surplus land,which is now vested with the government for more than 30 years,will have to be returned by the government to the original owners following this amendment. In most cases,the surplus land has been sold by the government and has changed several hands and it is almost impossible for the government to meet such claims.

While Punjab is still sleeping over this aspect of the hurried amendment that it brought about in October last year,in Haryana,director general (land records) Ashok Khemka had early this month asked for directions from the government,pointing out that this aspect of the amendment should be better publicised and farmers,who gave up their land,be told that they too stand to benefit.

The Haryana cabinet had decided to amend the Haryana Ceiling on Land Holding Act-1972,following which,an ordinance was passed. The Assembly cleared the amendment in August and the act was notified in October,2011.

Under the Act,the permissible area allowed for an individual to possess ranges from 18.12 acres and 54.5 acres,depending on the quality of the land. However,the amendment introduced three extra clauses (g,h and i) in the Act by which,there was now no limit to the amount of land bought by an individual to be put to non-agricultural use.

The Act was deemed to have come into force from January 30,1975 and it is this back-dated enforcement that has led to the piquant situation. On September 7,Khemka wrote to the Haryana financial commissioner (revenue),saying: “Permission may be accorded to give wide publicity of this amendment through the deputy commissioners and through regional papers. To prevent discrimination against the poor farmers whose lands were declared surplus and utilised but now exempted as per the amendment,such farmers may be allowed to claim back their land declared surplus earlier and vested in the state under Section 12.”

He added: “If this relief is not accorded to the farmers of the state,it will be discriminatory and punishing the weak farmers for pursuing agriculture and an economic activity,while rewarding the big business,viz private colonisers and SEZ,with retrospective effect by legally exempting their past transgressions of the law.”

Khemka has also pointed out that the change of land use (CLU),which were granted to developers and real estate promoters for developing areas beyond the permissible limits before the Act was amended,was done in violation of the Act and all such cases need to be investigated by an independent agency. He added that for future,the Department of Town and Country Planning,which grants these CLUs,should seek approval from the Land Records directorate before issuing a CLU.

In Punjab,the Assembly on October 8,2011,amended the Punjab Land Reforms Act-1972,removing the land ceiling limits for non-agricultural use of land. For agricultural purposes,the ceiling continues to be 7 hectares to 20.5 hectares. Following the Haryana example,this amendment was made applicable from January 1971.

While states like Rajasthan and West Bengal have also amended their land ceiling laws to facilitate commercial and industrial use of land doing away with limits on ownership of such lands,their amendments have come into force prospectively and not retrospectively.