Kerala - Alappuzha   

Land Reforms Act needs change: Sudhakaran

ALAPPUZHA: Cooperation Minister G. Sudhakaran has said every policy and law have to change with time to bring forth the intended result.

Inaugurating a seminar on the relevance of land reforms, organised in connection with the State conference of the Kerala Land Revenue Staff Association (KLRSA), here on Saturday, Mr. Sudhakaran said none could say that the land reforms initiated by various Left fronts in Kerala were unnecessary.

The Congress, he said, was criticising land reforms without remembering that the Left government of 1957 had only implemented land reform laws introduced by the Jawaharlal Nehru regime.

However, it was necessary for the Land Reforms Act to undergo certain changes to align itself with the developments that the State saw over the years.

Such changes were necessary to sustain the Left aim of ensuring land to all the landless, particularly when there were covert attempts by the land mafia to sabotage the Land Reforms Act, he said.

Citing several instances of misuse of surplus land distributed by the government, the Minister said the government could recover the distributed land, if necessary, but was not planning any such move at present.

Calling for re-structuring of land boards in the State, the Minister said ignoring the essence of the People’s Plan Campaign in the Kuttanad Assembly constituency had led to the vast damage in the agriculture sector. There was no coordination between people’s representatives or farmers to tackle unexpected calamities.

Mr. Sudhakaran came down heavily on the State Planning Board, saying that those at the helm of the board did not have practical knowledge of Kerala’s issues or an awareness of the ground reality here. Several crucial, grass-root issues were not being addressed by the board.

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