Govt to provide police protection to farmers in farm access road disputes; Raju Shetti says step is half-hearted

Shetti said the government has been overlooking the demand for carrying out the measurement of land each farmer holds. “The actual land holding in revenue records and the one in actual possession of farmers are different. For instance, if the land records shows that a farmer owns three acres of land, the actual piece of land in his possession is two-and-a-half acres. For years, we have been therefore demanding that the government carry out land measurement to settle the problem of actual land holding by farmers,” he said.

If the government starts measuring the land, Shetti said the courts would be left with little cases. “The courts today are saddled with disputes regarding the piece of land the farmer has or should have. There are boundary misalignments and fragmentation issues. The farmers have disagreements with their neighbour regarding their exact land holding. They have disputes within their own families over the ancestral land holding. Each one is fighting against the other in the court. If the government measures the lands as per the land records, then the courts would have very little cases to deal with,” he said.

In the past 50 years, Shetti said, measurement of land has not taken place. ”Because of this, farm lands of hundreds of farmers have disappeared. Many possesses the 7/12 land extract owning two-acre or four-acre land, but in reality, the land is nowhere available or could not be traced. In some cases, farmers had land in acres on paper but it has been reduced in gunthas or small pieces. This is leading to dispute between farmers. Therefore, instead of providing access to roads, the government should provide access to the actual land to farmers,” he said.

Shetti said when Balasaheb Thorat was the revenue minister, he had announced the decision to measure the land of farmers. ”However, after the announcement, nothing happened,” he said.

The key provisions of the Bill passed by the Assembly on Friday include:

1. Notices can now be served through post or electronic mail (e-mail) to eliminate delays caused by incomplete addresses or refusal to accept notices.
2. A new Section 14A has been inserted in the Mamlatdar’s Courts Act, 1906. If service through post or e-mail is not possible, affixing the notice on the land or at a public place in the village will be deemed valid service.
3. In cases related to agricultural access roads and rights-of-way, if the encroacher fails to comply with the Mamlatdar’s order, free police protection will now be mandatorily provided to the applicant farmer for implementation of the order.
4. Powers earlier limited to the District Collector and Deputy Collector have now been extended to Sub-Divisional Officers as well.

Speaking on the bill, MLAs Bhaskar Jadhav, Abhimanyu Pawar, Sanjay Gaikwad, Abhijit Patil, Raghavendra Patil, Rajesh Pawar and Rajkumar Badole and others welcomed the amendments, terming them farmer-friendly and instrumental in expediting justice.

The amendments are expected to make the functioning of Mamlatdar courts faster, more transparent and effective in protecting the rights of farmers over access to their fields, Bawankule said.