The Hindu : Karnataka News : Farm tenancy system is still in vogue

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Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Farm tenancy system is still in vogue

Pramod Mellegatti

Nearly 38,000 acres of land is being cultivated under this arrangement

LANDLESS: A poor Dalit family of Behalli in Hosnagar taluk of Shimoga district which tills the land of a government higher primary school.

SHIMOGA: Tenancy system is still in vogue despite the Government’s consistent claim that it has been abolished under the Karnataka Land Reforms Act of 1974.

This may sound incredible but it is a fact that this practice is still noticeable in parts of the old Mysore region where nearly 38,000 acres of land is being cultivated under this system.

What is surprising is that the Government itself is following the practice which goes against the spirit of the Land Reforms Act of 1974 which is based on the principle that “tiller is the owner of the land”.

Responding to the repeated pleas by the Karnataka Rajya Bhoo-Vidyadana Shala Jameenu Genidarara Horata Samithi for the conferment of ownership rights on the poor tenants who have been cultivating land belonging to government schools, Minister for Revenue Jagdish Shettar has convened the meeting of officers concerned and representatives of the samithi in Bangalore on Thursday to work out a formula to create khatas in the names of the tenants.

Samithi president Kallur Megharaj, honorary president and former MLC G. Madappa, vice-presidents B.R. Jayanth, Kadidal Shamanna and the former MLC, Prafulla Madhukar, will represent the tenants at the meeting.

It was in the 1950s that a movement was launched under the stewardship of the then Chief Minister Kengal Hanumanthaiya who was inspired by the Bhoodan movement launched by Vinoba Bhave.

Cultivable land was donated by landlords to government schools in response to a call given by the movement with a view to making schools self-sustaining.

It is said that nearly 50,000 acres of land was donated by landlords in various parts of old Mysore region to help government schools. As the school committees were not in a position to cultivate the land donated to them, it was handed over to landless poor farmers treating them as tenants.

Subsequently, the names of these tenants were entered in the Records of Rights of the Revenue Department though the ownership of the land remained in the name of the Governor. Tenants continued to pay land assessment fee on the basis of which they were sanctioned agricultural loan.

This tenancy system continued even after the Land Reforms Act of 1974 piloted by the then Chief Minister D. Devaraj Urs came into being. Though the system by and large was removed in most part of the State under the provisions of this Act, it was continued in the lands belonging to government schools.

Though the tenancy fee is still being remitted to the Government, ownership of land belonging to government schools has been denied to poor tenants. In view of this uncertainty over ownership of land, the poor tenants are reluctant to make any investment to develop the land despite the fact that they have been cultivating it for the last four decades.

The Action Committee of the Bhoo-Vidyadana Saguvali Raithara Horata Samithi has been fighting for the cause of the poor tenants.

Mr. Kallur Megharaj says that government schools are not in need of the land donated to them under the Bhoo-Vidyadana Movement as the Government has been giving them regular grant.

Asked if it is proper for tenants to seek ownership of land as it was donated for a purpose, he said that they were prepared to pay a nominal price to purchase it. “If a tenant is found to be in possession of land in excess to the ceiling fixed under the Land Reforms Act, the Government could acquire the excess land by paying compensation as it did in the case of other land owners,” he said.

Although the extent of land donated under the Bhoo-Vidyadana Movement is not known, it is stated that nearly 38,000 acres of land stands in the name of the Governor which is being cultivated by poor landless farmers to generate income for government schools.

However, the Government has taken the stand that the provisions of the Land Reforms Act are not applicable to land donated under the Bhoo-Vidyadana Movement while the Education Department is reportedly agreeable to take over such land by the Revenue Department.

Surprisingly, the Government has not taken any initiative to distribute the excess land to landless farmers cultivating land donated under the Bhoo-Vidyadana Movement under the Land Grants Rules.

In a letter to the then Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh, the Jnanpith award winner U.R. Ananthmurthy had said that the practice of tenancy for the last 50 years in the land donated to government schools under the Bhoo-Vidyadana Movement was unconstitutional.

He had said that the tenancy system in government school land continued to be a practice for want of political will to abolish it and had urged the Government to put an end to it.

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