As the Union and state governments discuss measures to tackle tensions arising out of land acquisition, large track of lands acquired by various state governments over decades is yet to be distributed.
The state governments acquired lands through various measures like land ceiling, Bhoodan land, wastelands and consolidation of agricultural land holding.
Since 1972, when the ceiling on land holdings was introduced across states, the latest figure released by ministry of rural development indicates that till September 2007, out of 2.7 million hectares of land declared?surplus? about 2.4 million hectares have been taken possession by states.
?Out of the surplus land taken possession, 1.9 million hectares have been distributed to more than 54 lakh people,? the latest figure of ministry of rural development said. Mostly the farmers belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backwards Castes have been benefited by such measures.
The figure also suggests that more than 3.8 million hectares have been involved in the litigation. West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have been leaders in initiating land reforms process.
Another contentious issue like ownership rights on the tenants have been dealt in the ministry of rural development report. ?Legislative measures have been taken in many states for conferement of ownership rights on tenants or protecting them from willful eviction or allowing cultivating tenants to acquire ownership rights on payment of compensation,? the report said More that 1.25 crore tenants have got their rights protected over an area of 67 lakh hectares.
A key component of the land reforms policy has been the consolidation of fragmented agricultural landholding. Till date 70.38 million hectares have been consolidated, according to the rural development ministry. But over the years other than Uttar Pradesh Haryana and Punjab, all states have run out of steam. Successive five year plans have been laying stress on consolidation of fragmented land holdings for planned development and increasing agricultural yield.
Even on the distribution of Bhoodan land (initiated by Gandhian Vinoba Bhave in 1951) out of 8.7 lakh hectares taken possession by the states, 6.7 lakh hectares have been distributed. ?Still more than 2 lakh hectare of land under Bhoodan land is yet to be distributed,? the ministry report said.
On the distribution of wastelands, the state governments have distributed 61 lakh hectares of land till date.
Prior to independence, a large part of agricultural land was held by intermediaries under the zamindari and other tenurial systems; tenant farmers who tilled the land had to pay high rents.
Issues relating to land and land tenures are state subjects, with the union government playing an advisory role. By 1961-62, all states had passed laws enforcing ceilings on land but the pattern of ceilings varied across states.
The central Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Act, 1971, tried to bring about uniformity by capping the ceiling for a family of five at 11.3 hectares (ha) of wetland and 21.9 ha of non-irrigated land. The land possessed by a family above these limits was called ?surplus?.