Agricultural Tenancy and related issues The Goan, June 22, 2015 http://www.readwhere.com/read/c/5644301
Pamela D'Mello is an independent journalist. In one of the prayers in its petition before the High Court seeking to rescind the several sale deeds by which 12.5 lakh sq m of allegedly tenanted agricultural land came to be sold, the Tiracol Tenant and Mundkar Association has made a plea for an inquiry into sales of other agricultural tenanted and in the state. If that should come to pass, it would undoubtedly make for some extremely interesting revelations. Unwittingly, Tiracol has come to be a metaphor for some of Goa's most vexed issues the perennial landlord-tenant tussle that has underpinned the region's politics, governments, governance and a considerable amount of its most significant legislation. The legal fiction of power of attorney holders and negative declaration in tenancy rights that are deployed to circumvent the provisions of the Agricultural Tenancy Act, that prevent sale of tenanted agricultural land, is hardly restricted to that northernmost corner of the state. In a scenario where considerable land is claimed by tenants, who neither cultivate/tend/harvest it but cannot legally sell either; the collusion between tenant and landlord with negative tenancy declarations, is an open secret in Goa's thriving land market. Vast swathes of land in the state, almost entire villages, have thus changed hands, sold to third party purchasers, often from outside the state (but not always). Apparently, the same happened in Tiracol the deal going sour over the differential payouts, when some felt they had given up their rights for way too little. Former minister Ramakant Khalap has a point when he says that deals like this, take the bottom out of any demand for special status or protection for Goa's land. Mr Khalap suggests that far more urgent is a legislation that, like many other states, would bar sale of agricultural/orchard land to a non agriculturist. The kind of law that got a Bollywood icon into trouble in Uttar Pradesh for purchasing farmland from that state. A law would help, but would a law alone plug the rampant sales? The Agricultural Tenancy Act, the Fifth Amendment Act, and the Goa Land Use Act, 1991, all have provisions to safeguard alienation of tenanted agricultural land. Sales continue nonetheless. And farm land gets converted to settlement/commercial zoning on considerations outside the parameters of holistic planning. Some of Goa's politicians, post statehood, have unfortunately practiced the politics and economics of land brokerage, as one politician candidly pointed out, to the ire of his colleagues. Along the coast and elsewhere, higher returns from tourism, real estate, rental housing, and government jobs, have all but edged out agriculture. Yet the fiction of agricultural tenancy persist, even where cultivation is token or no longer takes place. The 2014 amendment to the Goa Agricultural Tenancy Act, introducing provisions for contract farming, substituting the mamlatdar with civil court jurisdiction and introduction of the sunset clause attempted to tilt the balance but is drawing protests from tenant organisations. Chief Minister Parsekar has since reportedly promised to drop the sunset clause in the upcoming monsoon session of the legislative assembly. The clause was to put a three year cut off after September 2014, on filing applications declaring tenancy under sections of the Tenancy Act. Tenacy proponents like Mr Khalap however advocate a renewed campaign to requisition mamlatdars to survey areas and issue purchase orders. Ironically issues like the complete absence of a land ceiling law in Goa rarely surface in the debates. One suspects that not only would private landholdings have qualified, but certainly many tenancy claims as well. Every grouping has its own creamy layer, and tenancy was no different. There has always been the allegation that the post liberation tranches of land reform affected particular communities and caste groupings more than they did others. Comunidades have always cried foul over the way they were hit by tenancy claims and land acquisition single tenants claiming entire hills of cashew. Without capital and entrepreneurship, land and labour alone give limited returns -- that's basic economics, accounting for the stagnation the sector has seen. It is instructive that the umbrella organisation of tenant communities formed after the 2014 tenancy amendments, made several other demands. They reportedly wanted government to clear 10,000 applications to fill government vacancies and 5000 promotions; besides protested injustice from government in failing to pursue all round development of these communities in education, health, art, culture, sports, and social and economic fronts. Meanwhile, Goa's declining farm produce and its dependency on neighbouring states for fruits, vegetables and pulses, is cited as the reason to introduce contract farming to improve efficiency and economies of scale. It offers some hope from the blatant trade in land.(ends) Pamela D'Mello is an independent journalist. Pamela D'Mello Cell 9850 461649 http://pameladmello.wordpress.com http://goadecode.wordpress.com