BHUBANESWAR: The legislation to protect the interest of sharecroppers may not see the light of the day soon because of serious differences of opinion among the members of Committee of Ministers (CoM) and need to amend the existing Odisha Land Reforms Act to make the Act on cultivating another person’s land legal.
The committee, headed by Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Maheswar Mohanty, has already met three times without arriving at a conclusion in this regard. Though it was announced after the last meeting that the committee will meet again to deliberate the issue, the meeting never took place. It has now become clear that the State Government cannot introduce the new legislation in the Assembly during next session beginning from September 6.
Cooperation Minister Surya Narayan Patro, a member of the committee, told this paper that as per the Odisha Land Reforms Act, absentee ownership of agricultural land is not legal and there is risk for the owner that his land will be taken away by the Government if it is proved. He said there is a need for amendment of the Odisha Land Reforms Act which needs approval of the President of India. But this is a time-consuming affair, he added.
Patro, however, said the Government can bring a Bill for identification of true farmers so that they do not face any problem during the procurement of paddy. For this, either the Sarpanch, Panchayat Samiti member or some respected persons of the village will have to certify that a person is cultivating the land belonging to another person. However, this proposal also seems to be far fetched and the entire matter has been referred to Law Department for its opinion.
Another major difference between members of the committee was how to distribute the produce between sharecroppers and owners of the agricultural land. The members could not decide whether the produce should be kept at the traditional one-third and two-third proportion for the land owner and sharecroppers respectively as per the existing practice or be fixed at the ratio of 40:60. The members also discussed whether the sharecroppers should be financially compensated.
Though more than 85 per cent of the land is cultivated by sharecroppers in Odisha, they do not get any Government assistance at the time of natural calamities. The sharecroppers also do not get loan from banks and fertiliser at subsidised rate because there is no such provision under the existing law. They are not entitled to get input subsidy, insurance cover, relief and other benefits.
The other members of the committee are Agriculture Minister Damodar Rout, Panchayati Raj Minister Pradip Maharathi and SC and ST Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi.