HYDERABAD: Secured rights over land is still an unfulfilled dream for millions of poor in India owing to the lack of basic knowledge of land laws and the skills to interpret and enforce them on part of revenue officers also remains a major challenge, Prof V Balakista Reddy, registrar of NALSAR University of Law, has said.
He was speaking at a training programme on ‘Challenges on Assigned Lands: Solution Mechanisms Training Program’ conducted by the Centre for Tribal and Land Rights of NALSAR University of Law and Sadhana Academy of Imperative Law and Life Skills (SAILS) here on Saturday. Speaking on the occasion, Prof Reddy explained the various issues regarding assigned lands.
He stated that lakhs of people were facing problems with assigned lands, due to defects and difficulties in the legislation as well as revenue records. He said that due to the initiatives taken by the Telangana government, more than 3 lakh families would be benefited.
He further stated that knowing basic land rights and law is must for every landholder. He also appreciated the initiatives taken by SAILS in promoting land rights awareness through this training programme.
“Lack of legal awareness, absence of legal aid, inaccessible adjudicating systems and weak enforcement are some of the factors disabling the poor to have access to justice,” he said.
To help the poor in securing land rights, Prof Reddy highlighted the several innovative community models developed by the Centre for Tribal and Land Rights (CTLR), NALSAR including the paralegal training programme, pilot projects, village land clinics, establishment of land rights centres in district courts, training programmes to revenue officers, various legal literacy initiatives and participatory land laws review undertaken by the University.
These projects have helped more than a million households in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in securing land rights, he said. Retired revenue officials and law academicians conducted training classes in this one-day training programme on these issues. More than 100 farmers, advocates, social activists, students of law, landowners, victims of land disputes from both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana participated.