The Cabinet has come out with a formula for evaluating non-saleble land in the Santhal Pargana region of Jharkhand. A committee headed by the Divisional Commissioner and all the DCs of the region as its members would fix the rate of compensation for every circle and district of the area based on the new set of policy.
The system has been put in place acting upon Section 26 (3) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, meant for areas where sale and purchase of land is not allowed as per the law.
“Under the Section, the State Government is authorised to made appropriate provisions for land acquisition for various developmental and other purposes. The Government has made a policy under this which was not in place earlier. The policy would be followed for fixing land rate by the committee of Divisional Commissioner and all DCs of the Santhal Pargana region,” said land Revenue Secretary KK Soan informing about the Cabinet decision on Tuesday.
Claiming that the policy would be more beneficial for the farmers, Soan said now the rate of saleble land around the district or even of Bihar would be taken into consideration for fixing the price. “This apart, the committee would also add agriculture productivity of the land for 30 years’ period and value of tree, timber and fruits before reaching on any price. The period was just 15 years earlier,” said the official.
There are five different categories of land—Dhani 1, 2, 3 and Badi 1 and 2—based on productivity and crop cycle for a year. At present, rate of Dhani 1 category of land which is the double cropped land has been fixed at Rs12.5 lakh for every acre and 3/4 of it is for Dhani-2 and so on. As per the Act, the land losers are to get compensation four times of the market value while Soan stressed that taking into consideration some other factors it would stand somewhere near 4.5 times in Jharkhand.
The policy in place also proposes that in case any land has been acquired previously at higher rate than the latest formula, then the DC would send a proposal to the State Government for guidance. “We are expecting the rate would be fixed by the Divisional Commissioner as soon as possible because all the developmental activities have been halted in the region covered under SPT Act in the want of adequate land,” added Soan.
Besides, the Cabinet decided to setup dialysis centres on PPP mode in eight districts, namely Bokaro, Chaibasa, Dhanbad, Dumka, Gumla, Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur and Palamu. Tender would be floated and conditions would be laid down later on.
Cabinet Secretary SS Meena while briefing about the decisions also added that Rs60 crore has been released as State Government’s share under the PM Crop Insurance Scheme, which came into force from April 1, 2016. Farmers opting for crop insurance under the scheme are to pay 1.5 per cent of the insured amount for Rabi crop and 2 per cent for Kharif while State and Center would share the rest on 50:50 basis as premiums.