Bill soon to prevent non-agricultural use of farmland in Uttarakhand

Bill soon to prevent non-agricultural use of farmland
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 13 Aug: Uttarakhand Government will soon bring a legislation to prevent non-agriculture activities on farmland. Sources added that a bill was being drafted in this regard. Sources added that the Chief Minister was unhappy over large scale conversion of land use from agriculture to commercial, industrial and residential purposes. At the directions of the State Government, no land use conversion is being allowed in the state by the concerned authorities. The State Government had already declared its intention that it would not encourage industrialisation on agriculture land in the state. It is learnt that the proposed bill under preparation would include a provision that agriculture land would not be made available for SEZs and other industrial purposes.Sources claimed that the draft bill might also include a provision that all agriculture land abandoned or left intestate would get vested with the Government. This provision, however, is likely to generate controversy. Sources claimed the Government felt that agriculture was chiefly carried out on small holdings and the government wished to ensure that it was not abandoned even in case of small holdings. According to a rough estimate, more than 30 percent of agricultural land in the hills was not being cultivated and was, therefore, prone to becoming infertile and faced danger of erosion as well. The State Government has already launched a drive to identify all such farms that have either been left intestate or had been abandoned. The sources also admitted that Government ostensibly wanted to ensure people did not leave their farms uncultivated. They would be required to either cultivate the land themselves or give it on contract to others to cultivate in case such a provision was included in the draft bill. They also admitted that Government was very seriously looking forward to contract farming as a way to encourage agricultural activity in the state. The proposed provision could be a way to justifying the contract farming that has so far generated mixed reaction.However, the bill was mainly aimed at preventing non-agriculture use of farm land and disallowing easy land use change of agricultural land. Sources informed that in Dehradun, alone, there had been more than 188 cases from April 2001 till March 2007 where land conversion was done by the MDDA of large plots. Most of the conversion was done from Agriculture to Commercial and the remaining was done from agriculture to mixed use or residential purposes. Uttarakhand has less than 12 percent cultivable land as more than 63 percent of its geographical area is covered by forest. There was an urgent need felt by the Administration to preserve the remaining agricultural land. Sources at the Chief Minister’s office claimed that Khanduri was very firm on not allowing any land use conversion for some time to come. All the district administrations have already been directed not to allow any land conversion at their levels. In fact, the MDDA was reportedly told in Doon to identify illegal constructions on farmland and demolish it.