Author(s):
Richard Mahapatra
Date:
Jun 15, 2012
States
rush in with new policies and programmes to protect village land
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| People of Gujarat’s Mundra coast are waging a battle to win back pasture land allotted to SEZ (Courtesy: MASS, Gujarat) |
IN
THE last week of April, the Gujarat government circulated a draft
policy on pastoral land. The draft prohibits handing over of pastoral
or gauchar land for industrial and other commercial purposes. This is
unusual for a state, which had earmarked the same land for industrial
uses. “If gauchar land is in the middle of an urban area, the
government will denotify and sell the land and develop pastures at an
alternative site,” says C L Meena, principal secretary, revenue
department.
Rajasthan
has taken a similar initiative to protect village common land. In
November 2011, it became the first state to draft a policy for such
land. Even before the draft is finalised, the state has issued orders
to demarcate, develop and protect the commons.
Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka are doing the same. Fifteen other states are in
various stages of declaring new policy and programmes for protecting
village commons. This is all thanks to the Supreme Court order on
freeing common land and property, like pastoral land and tanks, from
encroachment and acquisition (see ‘Return of village land’, Down
To Earth, February 16-28, 2011).
On
January 28, 2011, the court directed all states to evict encroachers
from village commons. “They (common property) were generally
treated as inalienable in order that their status as community land
be preserved,” the court noted in its ruling.
The
order has spurred responses ranging from drafting common land policy
to judicial orders on eviction of encroachers from commons. It is
important because there has never been any focused attempt to protect
and develop the country’s commons. In fact, there are no proper
records of common properties which contribute substantially to local
economy. The order came at a time when a large number of acquisitions
of common land for infrastructure development is taking place in the
country. Since 2002, the Centre has been trying to adopt a policy on
common land but without any progress.
Wake-up
call
Following
the apex court’s direction, there have been five high court orders
either admitting cases against taking over of village commons or
rescinding such takeovers.
An
analysis by non-profit Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) shows
29 judiciary pronouncements and 29 government orders on commons have
been issued since the apex court order last year (see map). “A key
problem with common land is that no single department is responsible
for it. Thus, it falls very low on the priority list of the
bureaucracy. The Supreme Court’s judgement helped in creating
urgency for action for securing commons,” says Jagdeesh Rao, head
of FES.
Facing
some high-profile protests over common land acquisition, Gujarat has
started compensating villages whose common land have been taken away:
around Rs 23 crore have already been disbursed to create new
pastureland. Without legal protection, village commons are shrinking
fast. In the past three years, Gujarat has sold 116,000 square metres
of such land for various purposes, leaving 424 villages without any
pastoral land. The state has just one-fifth of its required pastoral
land.
Rajasthan
had enforced the apex court order in May last year and ordered works
under the rural employment guarantee programme to be used for
development of the commons. Under the policy, the state will transfer
revenue wasteland to panchayats as grazing land.
Other
courts, too, are taking cue from the order. In February, 2011, the
Allahabad High Court ordered that a patch of three hectares in
Chitrakoot be again recorded as a pond and given to the gram sabha.
In the next three months, it gave similar verdicts in two other cases
involving encroachment of two ponds on common land. In November, the
Jharkhand High Court directed the state to make sure no more
government land, which includes commons, is encroached upon.
Instances
of communities using the order to assert rights over commons are also
evident. On March 7 this year, the Goa High Court admitted a writ
petition against diverting commons for real estate development.
Residents of Moira village near Mapusa have used the order to free a
large parcel of common land, called the comunidades in Goa, from the
clutches of developers. Comunidades are in existence since the 11th
century and are considered one of the best examples of community
farming system. Under this, common land is leased for cultivation for
three years. However, to cash in on the tourism boom, a nexus of
revenue officials, panchayat members and developers has sold off such
land parcels by terming them fallow.
Political
motives?
The
government’s newfound interest in commons could be due to political
reasons. In states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and
Odisha, communities have been protesting common land acquisitions for
industrial use.
Gujarat’s
draft policy on pastor land is perceived to win the support of
communities for the ruling party as it goes to election this
year-end. “Gujarat’s stand is puzzling as it goes against its own
orders of 2005 for allocation of charagah and common land for
corporate farming. There is pressure from the maldhari community,”
says Rao. It may perhaps be a step to secure their votes, he adds. In
Rajasthan, where a large number of people depend on livestock
rearing, there have been demands from communities to free grazing
land.
Bureaucrats
Down To Earth spoke to see the apex court order a mixed judgement
that gives the government the opportunity to deal with highly
unpopular commons takeovers. C S Rajan, additional chief secretary of
Rajasthan, says the state was already drafting a land policy on
common land. “The order provided the right opportunity to push for
it. For communities, it will be economically beneficial.”
However,
the response to the order has not been uniform. Though the court
ordered compliance report by May 2011, only four such reports have
come to light. The court has not listed the case since its verdict.
In between, it has admitted FES’ plea to be a party to the case in
terms of helping with its expertise on the subject. Civil society
groups complain the order has not been expanded to commons like
forests. Whatever implementation has taken place lacks “the right
spirit”, says Gautam Bandhopadhya, a forest rights activist in
Chhattisgarh.
A
senior official of Chhattisgarh says delay in following up the case
will render the actions taken till now less meaningful. “There is
already a strong lobby working against the apex court’s direction
despite orders from the highest authority in states,” he says.
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