JAIPUR: After enacting legislation on contract farming and setting up private mandis, the Rajasthan Government's eyes are now set on the State's vast tracts of "unutilised'' land, which in the official classification comes under the category of "wasteland". Moves are afoot for enactment of a new law to facilitate leasing out of degraded land, including ravines, ranging from 500 hectares to 20,000 hectares to private parties for agro-based produce purposes.

Rajasthan covers more than 10 per cent of India's total land mass and going by the categorisation of land, about 50 per cent of area here comes under "wasteland". The Government move is based on the presumption that the land categorised as "wasteland'' is serving no purpose and can be put to use by hi-tech agriculture.

"Wasteland means degraded land which can be brought under cultivation with reasonable efforts and which is currently lying unutilised, and land which is deteriorating for lack of appropriate soil and water management or on account of natural causes,'' notes a draft policy prepared to "promote agro-based projects on the wasteland in Rajasthan''.

Ravine land has been identified as "land spoiled by action of water into gully and narrow gorges and rendered unfit for cultivation by ordinary means''. The Government's concern for ravines is understandable as Dholpur, once represented by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, forms part of ravine territory where dacoit gangs still exist.

The present categorisation of land as per land use goes back to the British times when all the land, which fetched income, was put in the category of either revenue land or forest. If 49.7 per cent land under cultivation and 7.2 per cent under forests is excluded, the rest of the land in Rajasthan is up for grabs for the neo-colonisers.

"The immediate target seems to be 15.1 per cent land categorised as `cultivable waste','' points out Manohar Singh Rathore of the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur. "The authorities can go ahead and include as much as 28 per cent of the State's land for this kind of distribution,'' he noted, pointing out that 7.8 per cent barren and uncultivable land and 5.1 per cent permanent pastures and other grazing land too could come under the hammer eventually. As per the draft policy, wastelands identified by the District Collector would be allotted to Indian companies (registered under the Companies Act, 1956) with a potential to develop such lands for establishment of agro complexes or estates. The nodal agency for allocation would be the State Agriculture Department. Preference will be given to units planning cultivation and export of commodity and those who propose to invest in high technology agriculture.

The companies are expected to establish cultivation/farming/plantation, agro-processing industrial units and composite high technology agriculture projects in the areas of horticulture, vegetables, medicinal plants and herbs, bio-fuel producing crops, spices and condiment and mushroom culture.

The land can also be put to use in hybrid seed production, micro propagation through tissue culture, research and development activities including training. The cultivation of wheat, cereals and pulses has been excluded. The allotment will be for an initial period of 30 years, which could be renewed thereafter.

"The move amounts to attempts at giving away public land to private entrepreneurs at throwaway prices,'' charges social activist and Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy.

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