Karnataka   

Scheme for landless farm workers yet to take off

DAVANGERE: The ambitious “Namma Bhoomi-Namma Thota” (our land, our garden) scheme initiated by the State Government in 2005 has failed to take off at many places in the State, including Davangere district.

The scheme was meant to provide some land to landless agricultural workers to help improve their economic condition. The chief reasons for its failure have been attributed to non-availability of land, absence of land within their area or nearby villages and technical difficulties with regard to land purchase.

The Government, realising the poor living conditions of the workers, introduced the scheme wherein it decided to provide a minimum of five guntas of dry land or two-and-a-half guntas of irrigated land to the workers, so that they could grow vegetables or crops, apart from rearing sheep or cows. By offering land to them, the Government sought to make them self-reliant and also stem migration from rural areas.

The scheme was to offer them a definite source of income. The Government, based on a survey of families involved in agricultural activity, conducted in 2004, decided to implement the scheme in a five-year-period. According to the survey, there were five lakh landless agricultural workers in the State. The Government planned to bring at least one lakh workers under the scheme every year, so that all of them would benefit after five years.

The scheme was to be implemented in at least one village in each gram panchayat. The Government estimated that 10,000 acres of dry land and 1,250 acres of irrigated land would be required each year for implementation of the scheme. This in turn meant that a total of 50,000 acres of dry land and 6,250 acres of irrigated land would be required. The Government stated that land should be purchased only from big farmers, and not from small and marginal ones, or from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe people.

Various departments such as Agriculture, Horticulture and Watershed Development have been asked to educate the workers on issues concerning crop cultivation. However, certain conditions imposed by the Government under the scheme had had an adverse impact on its implementation. Apart from this, the Government had set apart only Rs. 6,000 to be spent on each worker, which made land acquisition difficult.

A senior official from the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Ministry told The Hindu that the scheme had failed to take off, owing to non-availability of land. Farmers were reluctant to sell their irrigated land in places such as Harihar and Honnali. Even dry lands were not available in the vicinity of the villages, he said. Big farmers evinced little interest in selling their land, as the compensation sought to be given by the Government was too low.

Owing to such difficulties, the scheme was yet to kick-start in any part of the State, he said. The Government has released Rs.75 lakh to Davangere district so far under the scheme, but the zilla panchayat had failed to get land in Honnali, Harihar and Chennagiri taluks.

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

Stories in this Section

Celebration time
Celebration
Dies in accident
Scheme for landless farm workers yet to take off
13 activists arrested
An example worth emulating
‘Games essential for positive attitude’
Yeddyurappa to be BJP’s chief ministerial candidate
Manmohan’s remarks show Congress has conceded defeat in Gujarat: Sinha
‘Poverty of leadership in UPA’
Stray dog bites girl
Additional oil jetty at NMP recommended
Water adalat

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu