Chhattisgarh govt scraps controversial land revenue code

The Chhattisgarh cabinet has decided to end the rule of Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code that permitted acquisition of tribal land on mutual agreement basis.

The cabinet meeting, which took place late on Thursday also slashed current power tariff to half for consumption up to 400 units and also waived off short term loans taken by farmers.

“The Land Revenue Code rule which was made by the BJP government in December 2017 was opposed by the tribal unions and rights activists. Later, in January 2018, the then government decided to withdraw the controversial amendment bill related to procuring land from tribals but the bill was not totally scrapped,” said Nirmal Khakha, secretary Revenue, and Disaster management.

The Chhattisgarh Land Revenue Code (Amendment) Bill, 2017 has a clause that says: Only state can buy the land from the tribals with their consent.

The then BJP government claimed that the bill was passed to speed up the developmental projects such as roads in the state and the land could only be purchased with the consent of the owner.

Alok Shukla, the president of Chhattisgarh Bachaao Andolan, while praising the the government’s decision to scrap the bill said: “The method of acquisition of land is against the provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996. Under this code, there were chances of forcefully acquiring the tribal land by the government.”

Officials from the revenue department said that they will be collecting figures from the districts about the land acquired under the provision.

On the other hand, BJP spokesperson Sacchinand Upasane said his party had declared to withdraw the bill in January 2018 “because we believed that tribals rights will be harassed. Congress government has done nothing new”.