Opinion On shaky ground
Ratan Tatas observation that land is the least reformed sector in India has not come a day soon. The wilderness which threatens to envelop Indias future is deeply rooted in land.
Ratan Tatas observation that land is the least reformed sector in India has not come a day soon. The wilderness which threatens to envelop Indias future is deeply rooted in land. Efficient land management is the sine qua non of the countrys development,but it is today an area of darkness. Land records,the bedrock of land administration,are in tatters. While we continue to swear by computerisation,there is no understanding of correct land records. This should have been placed on a sound footing right after Independence. The Central government,beyond bemoaning the sad state of affairs in their five year plans,and offering some financial assistance to states for some isolated schemes (computerisation included),has done nothing.
The landscape was transformed after Independence. Intermediaries disappeared. In some states tenants became the owners of the land. Uncultivated land of the intermediaries and their forests became government property. The government did not have any records for vast tracts of such land. Village commons were encroached upon. The old system of land records was not designed for such cataclysmic changes and in any case,the records had fallen into arrears. Revisional settlements were held in abeyance. Several factors contributed to this the second world war,Indias Independence,the aftermath of Partition,the adoption of the Constitution,the reorganisation of the states,etc. The reorganisation of states created a piquant situation. While language was a unifying factor,historic legacy was not so in the same state,while one part was under proprietary settlement,the other was under ryotwari settlement. The feudatory states,merged into India after Independence,had their own system of land administration.
It was therefore imperative that the common substratum was rediscovered and redefined. What needed to be done was undoubtedly important,but how it needed to be done was equally important. It would have been useful to redefine the canvas in terms of land administration. Land related issues are a complex web,which cannot be unravelled unless every inch of the land is measured and mapped. Such a survey will be qualitatively different from traditional surveys which preceded earlier settlements. The survey operations would give us a unique opportunity to introduce the Torrens System,as a result of which the title to land,instead of being presumptive as at present,will become conclusive. Once that happens,half the litigation,both civil as well as criminal,will be over. Land titling never got off the ground though it figured prominently in common minimum programme (CMP) of the UPA coalition government. Urban areas remained virtually untouched.
There is a confrontation at every step,which leads to litigation both civil and criminal. The land management system is not equipped to deal with the existing demands. Land prices began to rise,adding to the tensions. In the vacuum created,vested interests stepped in. They were quick to subvert the system. Judicial delays created space in which muscle power moved in. Until 1970s,no one had heard of land mafias. Today they rule the roost. These firmly entrenched interests resist reform of any kind in the land sector. This land mafia is holding the entire country to ransom.
If one doesnt know ones relationship to a particular piece of land,that relationship will always be tenuous and fragile. The vitality of a nations economy depends on the clarity and strength of that relationship. It was Dr Manmohan Singh,then deputy chairman of the planning commission,who appointed me chairman of the one-man committee on records-of-rights in the land set up by the planning commission in 1987. I submitted my report and recommendations entitled Guaranteeing Title to Land: A Preliminary Study in 1989.
It is my considered opinion that no single measure will have the kind of impact on the socio-economic scene as the state guaranteeing title to land. No one in this country realised this dilemma of dilemmas as clearly as the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He shared my views and supported my endeavour. So keen was he on the implementation of the scheme throughout the country that he planned an all-India seminar of intellectuals. That alas was not to be,as Lok Sabha elections were announced and the seminar was deferred. The United Front government that came into power evinced no interest in the matter,and nor did the NDA government. My hopes brightened when the Congress included the project in its Shimla Sankalp in 2003. Later,when the Congress led the coalition government at the Centre,the project figured in the CMP. Yet nothing happened. The shadow which fell between promise and performance began to lengthen as the years rolled by.
The reasons are not hard to find. The vicious circle of the quest of power for pelf and pelf for power holds the country in its vice-like grip. A system of land administration which is in total disarray came in handy. Thus the countrys vital concerns are sacrificed at the alter of expediency. The regional plan coupled with a record-of-rights in land based on the state guaranteeing title to land would render proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act procedural in character. If there is one sector which needs to be reformed,it is this sector. And if there is one sector which is being studiously ignored,it is this sector. There is hardly any awareness of ground realities. Computerisation is illusory mere tinkering with the present system will be an exercise in futility. In the absence of an understanding of what is amiss,where and why,reforms in land administration make no dent on the problem.
The task is daunting but we ignore it at our peril. A single stone, J. Krishnamurti had said can change the course of a river. This is that stone.
The writer is at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics
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