Persistent logjam over the decision to amend certain provisions of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act are in all likelihood would see a Bill to be tabled in the Assembly’s Winter Session.
Top sources in the Government confided to The Pioneer that the Government may go for the option available with it since the issue has gathered considerable amount of negative weight around which is growing with every passing day.
“The idea is being mooted. It is quite possible that during the upcoming Winter Session of the Assembly, which is likely to be called in November, the Bill proposing the amendments to the CNT and SPT Acts would be presented for discussion,” said a senior official of the Chief Minister Office.
The amendments got nod of the Cabinet in May proposing changes in a sub-section of the Sections 21, 49 and 71(A) of the CNT Act and Section 13 of the SPT Act. The provisions relooked empower the Government to acquire land in the Chotanagpur region for various infrastructure development activities. Also, the amendments facilitate tribal landholders to use their agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes.
The changes were to be brought by issuing an Ordinance which has been sent to the President for his assent. Significantly, while on the one hand, the signature of the President is still awaited, tribal groups and also a section of the BJP MlAs raised objections to the government move.
“The whole idea is to mitigate the opposition and also discuss the issue threadbare. One of the main reservations has been among the leaders that the amendments proposed were not discussed and debated properly. Our contention was that in the amended version there was no guarantee that once the non-agricultural land is converted into non-agricultural purposes the permanent lease of the raiyat would not change into temporary and would be renewed after 30 years when the lease expires,” said Tribal Advisory Council member and BJP legislator Shiv Shankar Oraon.
He also added the matter has been discussed with Chief Minister Raghubar Das and Minister Amar Kumar Bauri besides, senior office bearers of the party and since then the Government has fallen in line.
“The Government has accepted the lacuna and agreed to incorporate in the Bill that the ownership of the tribal agricultural land would not change even after its conversion into non-agricultural nature. Anyway, the Ordinance is about to die its natural death and a fresh Bill would be brought into the Assembly,” said Oraon.
Similar assurances about keeping in ownership intact have been given about the SPT Act. Another important agreement has been arrived at is about Section 49 of the CNT Act in which the lands were to be taken for “common purposes”.
“The common purposes were not defined clearly. There was no objection to the land taken for school, anaganwadi, canal, road etc but anything else can be described as common purpose in future. We want the common purposes to be mentioned clearly in the Bill and the Government has no problem in doing that,” said the TAC member. Provision for compensation through SAR Courts is also to be stopped after the pending cases are over.
Thinking within the Government and the party is that the changes would present better benefits before the community that has not been able to use their land for their economic uplift. Most of the land are lying idle in the want of bank financing and has become dead assets for the tribals.
It is also learnt that all tribal legislators of the BJP would sit together on November 2 to discuss the modified position of the Government and a special meeting of the TAC is also proposed on November 3 to stamp the corrections, before the matter goes before the Assembly in the upcoming Session.