BD Sharma
Since the ancient times, the Revenue Department remained the backbone of Administration because the land revenue was the main source of income of any Government. In the recent past also the Department remained instrumental in implementing various reforms to bring justice to large number of people. However of late, the issues concerning this department which consequently are linked to the welfare of the farmers have got pushed to the periphery in our scheme of governance. There was a time when political leaders like Sheikh Abdullah, Mirza Afzal Beg, Pt Trilochan Dutt and Bhagat Chhaju Ram etc were at the helms of affairs and the welfare of the farmers was uppermost in their mind. But the present local political leadership does not seem to have the same sense of concern for the farmers. One is inclined to make such remarks because of the reason that it was found wanting to take prompt steps in bringing into force some farmer friendly laws such as the new Act for acquisition of land, where the farmers are entitled to steep enhancement of compensation. This was not done despite the fact that the new law had been enacted for the rest of the country by the Parliament many years back. Our farmers had been agitating for the extension/ promulgation of this progressive piece of legislation without any success. Even our widely circulated newspaper, The Daily Excelsior had been vigorously espousing this just cause of the farmers but to no avail. This became possible only on 31st October when the new Constitutional changes of governance came into effect and the new Law came into force here also.
It is of course a matter of satisfaction that the welfare of the farmers is one of the priorities of our Prime Minister and many steps are being taken to improve their lot. Target for doubling the income of the farmers by 2022 has been fixed. A number of measures like the introduction of high yielding varieties of crops, increasing the irrigated area, optimum use of fertilizers and pesticides and increase in Minimum Support Prices of farm produce etc are in the pipeline. However, there are some other areas where our Govt should also pay its attention. Much of it is with regard to some of its ongoing and some abandoned programs concerning the Revenue Department. These programs can broadly be categorized as Land Reforms and it will be of some interest to have a peep in them.
Land reforms is a very wide term and it envisages institutional measures directed towards altering the existing pattern of ownership, tenancy(where in vogue) and management of land. Land reforms indeed formed a part of heritage of the country’s freedom movement since the agrarian structure directly under the British Raj or under the Maharajas/ Nawabs was of the feudalistic exploitative character. The land reform measures after Independence resulted not only in raising the agricultural productivity but also acted as a tool for social resurgence and upliftment.
These reforms in our country were carried out in two stages, first in the early 1950s and the second one in the 1970s.The most urgent task in carrying out land reforms after Independence related to the fixing of the land ceiling. In our State the ceiling was fixed at 182 kanals with some exemptions under the Big Landed Estates Abolition Act. The surplus land expropriated from the big landlords was transferred to the tenants. The Agrarian Reforms Act of 1976 did further lower the land ceiling but it also ensured the transfer of land to the tiller and tenancy was almost eliminated.
In between these two phases a number of ancillary reforms such as with regard to the protection of the rights of the tenants were also carried out because the incidences of atrocities upon the tenants had drastically increased in the 1950s and 1960s. Another revolutionary enactment was also made with
regard to the consolidation of the land holdings when the Jammu and Kashmir Consolidation of Land Holdings Act, 1962 was passed by the State Legislature.
This was necessitated because the farms here were and continue to be not only of small size but also lie scattered. Due to this, farmers have to spend a lot of time, energy and money in moving men and materials from one farm to another. In the circumstances converting many small and fragmented farms into one big farm can go a long in reducing the wasteful spending by the poor farmers.
Consolidation of farms can either be taken up voluntarily or compulsorily. Our Act envisaged compulsory consolidation of farms. The Consolidation operations had been taken up in a few tehsils only. But the same could not be carried out to its logical conclusion even in these tehsils because the people were not satisfied with the operations and consequently the Government had to stop the operations midway. And afterwards implementation of Agrarian Reforms Act became the priority of the Government.
The Act had some glorious provisions like revision of records and maps including carrying out of partition and amalgamation of holdings, determination of valuation of plots, formation of blocks and determination of compensation of trees and private sources of irrigation, determination of exchange ratio to work out quantum of land to be surrendered and to be got, formation of the consolidation committees to have the views of landholders elicited and the determination and extent of land for Abadi Deh and other public purposes. The implementation of the Act was also taken in hand with a bang but problems started to crop up early when the consolidation had been notified and taken up.
There were many reasons for the failure of these operations in the State. The tenancy had not yet been abolished in the State and the conflict of interest between the owners and tenants played a spoil. The sentimental attachment a farmer developed for his farm blocked him to part with his field. The farmer had orthodox mindset. He didn’t want to part with the land of his ancestors, even if the principles of modern agricultural science/ business management advocated land consolidation. There were competing interests even between the self-cultivating owners. The Revenue agency perhaps failed to address the objections regarding the initial inventory of ownership, the boundaries between farms and the value attached to different parcels.
Though the consolidation of farms scheme didn’t succeed at that time yet another effort in this direction need to be made. This is so because of the fact that the land holdings have further become smaller, the farmers are unable to fend their scattered fields and consequently large chunks of land particularly in the Kandi area are not being cultivated regularly. The land has been transferred in ownership to the tillers and tenancy has to a large extent been abolished so clash of interests in consolidation of farms stands minimized. Mechanization of ploughing and harvesting is gradually becoming order of the day but the same is facing hindrance due to the small size of farms. In the circumstances the consolidation of farms is the need of the hour and it shall go a long way to address many problems of the farmers.
Since the Govt have already burnt their fingers in the implementation of the coercive Consolidation of Land Holdings Act, 1962 so the option of taking up the voluntary consolidation of farms needs to be tried. As this mode of consolidation is devoid of any coercion and the willingness of the farmers involved is the key element so the chance of its gaining acceptance amongst many farmers is high. As a first step a concerted campaign by the Government
Departments such as Revenue and Agriculture needs to be taken in hand to make the farmers aware of the advantages of the consolidation of farms. The farmers must be encouraged to exchange their farms among themselves in such a way that their scattered holdings get consolidated. Secondly the Govt must remit the Court fee/ Stamp duty on the registration of documents effecting such exchanges. Thirdly the powers for registration of documents involving these exchanges must be vested upon the lower rungs of Revenue Officers instead of the SDMs/ Judicial Officers. The Revenue officers should be obligated to attest the documents of registration and subsequently the mutations to give effect to such exchanges by holding camps on spot. Panchayat members and other respectable villagers need to be involved to give impetus to the move. We may also take a leaf out of the experiences of the States such as Gujrat, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh where voluntary consolidation of farms has seen some success.
Presently many farmers do inquire from the Revenue field agency if any plan is being contemplated by the Govt in this regard. In fact some progressive farmers are imploring the authorities to come with a scheme on this pattern for consolidation of farms. A civil activist of Bishana tehsil, Mr Prem Vashist, who takes a lot of interest for the welfare of the farmers, has been imploring the authorities since long for taking up of voluntary consolidation of farms.
There is another progressive mode of joint effort by farmers for smooth cultivation and reduced expenditure. It is through Cooperative farming can be defined as pooling of land and then practicing joint agriculture. In this type of operation each member-farmer remains the owner of his land individually though the farming is done jointly. Profit is distributed among the member-farmers in the ratio of land owned by them. In addition wages are distributed among the farmer-members according to the number of days they worked. Though the incipient form of cooperative farming used to be done in India since time immemorial yet Pt Nehru showed a lot of keenness in it in the 1950s. He sent agricultural experts and farmers to many socialist countries like China to study it so that such type of operations are transplanted to the Indian soil also. He visualized rightly that the method would facilitate reduction in cost of irrigation and cultivation etc. Elimination of boundaries and waste land in-between the farms would increase cultivable area. Pooling of resources and easing of the process of grant of help by Govt would also become possible. Problem of subdivision and fragmentation of holdings would also get solved. But this revolutionary idea didn’t catch the imagination of Indian farmer at that time and it had to be abandoned. Unfortunately the Cooperative movement as a whole didn’t become popular in our country but it is also a fact that there are many success stories like Amul and Sugar Cooperatives. So the farmers need to be educated for implementing this noble idea. The land holdings have already been abysmally fragmented and majority of them are no more economical. As compared to 1950s, the majority of farmers are educated and are in a better position to appreciate the advantages of Cooperative farming. More and more mechanization in farming is required to be introduced and the same is not possible by small farmers individually. A liberal dose of incentives can be provided to the farmers by the government for undertaking such operations because the Govt is in a far better position now to make available funds for the purpose in comparison to the situation in Nehru days. Both the operations viz. Consolidation of farms and Cooperative farming, can run simultaneously or they can compliment each other. The farmers can have the opportunity of adopting any one of the two options.
The Government needs simultaneously to concentrate on the already taken up crucial tasks of the Settlement operations and the Computerization and Digitization of the Revenue records. The security situation, unavailability of suitable Urdu software for long etc played a spoil in the timely implementation of these two important tasks and consequently we lagged far behind the other parts of the country in implementing them. Many States have made it possible for their farmers to simply visit a kiosk to retrieve a copy of the record of land. Our farmer has to wander around the Patwari for days together for the same. It will not only bring efficiency in the world of Revenue administration but also induce transparency in the system.
The hackneyed Revenue Department needs to employ many tools of modern governance and these measures form only a part of the same. They will certainly help to improve the lot of our farmers. Their income shall get enhanced and simultaneously a dose of good governance will also get induced. Both of them are, no doubt, required urgently by our farmer.
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