The Chief Secretary’s office that was to review the progress made on dhakhal-dihani or restoration of tribal land to their original owners on September 5 for Ranchi district, may have postponed it indefinitely, but sense coming out from the Government suggests that the process is not going to stop.
Highly-placed sources in the Revenue and land Reforms Department said that all the DCs have been told to do profiling of the violators first and then proceed further.
“We are conducting profiling of such cases in which all the matters pending would be sorted based on duration of pendency, quantity of land involved and also stature of the persons. It will take 3-4 months and till then the drive of restoration has been halted,” said a top official.
The Department had on August 23 directed for a review of Ranchi district where 3237 pending cases had come for restoration of tribal land to their legitimate owners from the SAR court. However, the drive had created law and order issue in the capital where thousands of non-tribal landholders came to the streets protesting.
“Earlier, a team of lawyers deputed by SAR court would go there and verify. We had filed 341 cases taking suo motu cognizance where settlements have been made fraudulently and no permanent structures were made on the land in question before 1969. Out of these 341, in about 115-120 people have claimed that they do not need their land back and are okay with the compensation. But since provisions in the CNT Act say the DC is the
custodian of tribal land, their no-objection becomes
immaterial. The dhakhal-dihani drive would resume after the profiling is complete,” said Ranchi DC Manoj Kumar.
Similar is the case of reclamation of the GM land across the State which has also gone slow, but for the time being. Moreover, the Department claims differently. “There is no relenting on GM land restoration cases. Notices have been served to the affected parties and they are being given legitimate time to respond, stake their claims and produce papers before the competent authorities. There are also some court appeals and we are considering all the legitimate claims before going ahead,” said Revenue and land Reforms Minister Amar Kumar Bauri.
Moreover, the matter has become highly politically sensitive and the ruling BJP is feeling heat from inside. Senior Minister in the Raghubar Das Cabinet Saryu Roy has expressed his
reservations against the drive.
“It may be legitimate but the decision to vacate the inhabitants seems the hurriedly taken one. The aggrieved parties should be given adequate time before executing the orders,” Roy said.