The Hindu : Kerala News : Extensive powers for District Collectors mooted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 01, 2007
ePaper

Kerala

Kerala

Extensive powers for District Collectors mooted

Special Correspondent

The Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Bill

THIRUVANANTHAURAM: The Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Bill, which has been referred to a Select Committee of the Assembly, envisages extensive powers for District Collectors, both to prevent conversion of paddy lands and enforce use of fallow land for cultivation.

The Bill is clearly a path-breaking effort to protect the remaining paddy fields and wetlands in the State from reclamation and encroachment.

The statement of objects and reasons of the Bill points out that paddy field conversion has led to enormous ecological degradation in the watersheds, reduction in humus formation, intensification of soil erosion affecting the fertility of the soil and reduction in water level in wells and ponds.

It also points that the wetlands in the State, including freshwater lakes, are facing severe threat as they are drained, cleared and reclaimed for the use of agriculture, settlement, industrial and other purposes.

The State has a total wetland of 1,27,930 hectares, 34,200 hectares of it being ‘inland wetland’ and 93,730 hectares being ‘coastal wetland’.

The Bill has been brought forward in view of the indiscriminate and uncontrolled reclamation and massive conversion of paddy land and wetland in the State.

Once the new law takes effect, the owner, occupier or the person in custody of any paddy land in a major paddy producing area in the State will not have the right to undertake any activity for the conversion or reclamation of such paddy field except in accordance with the provisions of the law and shall not keep such paddy land fallow.

The Government can, however, grant exemption from the provisions of the new law if such conversion or reclamation is essential for any public purpose.

Fields identified

The Bill identifies the ‘aathi’ or ‘koravakandom’ fields located in Mananthavadi and Sulathan Batheri taluks of Wayanad district, ‘Kaippad’ fields in Kannur, Thalassery and Thaliparambu taluks of Kannur district, ‘Karappuram’ fields in Cherthala taluk and parts of Amabalpuzha taluk of Alappuzha district, ‘Kolakkai’ fields in Kasaragod and Hosdurg taluks of Kasaragod district, ‘Koleland’ in Mukundapuram, Thrissur, Chavakkad and Thalappilly taluks of Thrissur district and Ponnani taluk of Malappuram district, ‘Kuttanadan fields’ in Kuttanad taluk, parts of Ambalapuzha, Mavelikkara and Karthikappally taluks of Alappuzha district, parts of Thiruvalla taluk of Pathanamthitta district and parts of Vaikom and Kottayam taluks of Kottayam district, ‘Palliyal fields’ in Eranad taluk of Malappuram district, ‘Pokkali’ fields in Kochi, Kanayannur and Paravur taluks of Ernakulam district and Kodungallur taluk of Thrissur district, the entire paddy fields of Palakkad district, the inter-hill paddy strips of midland region and double crop paddy land in the State, paddy fields which fall within the ayacut area of any major or minor irrigation project and any other paddy land notified by the Government from time to time.

The Bill seeks to facilitate conservation of paddy land and wetland, regulate illegal and vast reclamation of paddy land and other wetland and indiscriminate clay mining from the paddy field and improve the overall ecological conditions of the State.

However, the proposal to give District Collectors the power to enforce cultivation of fallow land may well meet with some resistance when the 21-member select committee gets down to the scrutiny of the Bill and eliciting of views of the general public about it.

Select committee

The select committee has Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran, Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran, Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran, Law and Parliamentary Affairs M. Vijayakumar, C.K.P. Padmanabhan, B. Raghavan, V. Chenthamarakshan, Raju Abraham, Murali Perunelli (all CPI-M), Pallipram Balan, N. Rajan (both CPI), Kovoor Kunjumon (RSP), T.U. Kuruvilla (KC-J), K.P. Mohanan (JD-S), Ramachandran Kadannappalli (Congress-S), Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, C.P. Muhammed, K. Babu (all Congress), Thomas Chazhikkadan (KC-M), M. Ummer (IUML) and Thomas Chandy (NCP) as members.

Sub-section 1 of Section 10 of the Bill states that ‘notwithstanding anything contained in any law, order, custom or practice, for the time being in force, the Collector may, by notice in writing in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed, call upon the holder of any paddy land, situated within his jurisdiction, which is not under cultivation and which, in the opinion of the Collector, is likely to be let fallow during the current cultivation season, to cultivate it with paddy or any other crop in accordance with this Act, either personally or through any other person, within such period, as may be specified in the notice’.

It further says that ‘the holder of such paddy land, within the period specified in the notice under sub-section (1) or within such extended period as the Collector may grant in this behalf on request, shall comply with the direction contained in the notice’ and that ‘where the holder of the paddy land fails to comply with the direction under Section 10, the Collector may, by order, direct and arrange for the entrustment by public auction or otherwise, of his right to cultivate the paddy land in question for a specified period, which shall ordinarily be three years’.

Any person who, in violation of the provisions of the law, converts or reclaims any paddy land in any major paddy producing area or converts or reclaims a wetland or remove sand from there shall, on conviction, be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend up to three years and not less than one year and with a fine between Rs.50,000 and Rs.1 lakh.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala