Any forward movement regarding allotment of canal and rainfed agricultural lands to the landless picks up pace only months before polls, and dies down immediately after the Model Code of Conduct comes into place

Hanumangarh, Rajasthan: Many governments have come and gone, and the results of the recent state Assembly election will be announced tomorrow (December 3). Eight to 10 months before every election, ministers and MLAs start giving assurances to the landless farm labourers of Rajasthan that they will soon be allotted land. A positive movement will also be visible in the offices of the state colonisation department. 

It will seem like the dream of the landless will soon come true. However, before anything happens, the election dates will be announced. Public representatives and officials will then claim that they cannot proceed further as the Model Code of Conduct is in place. 

Karnail Singh (70), a Dalit landless farm labourer from Bhagatpura village in Hanumangarh district, applied to the colonisation department office in 1982 for allotment of an agricultural plot in Bikaner district. Singh hoped the land would help him take care of his family's needs through cultivation. However, even after 41 years, nothing has happened. “To find out what has happened to my application, I made dozens of visits to the department’s office in Bikaner. But no one responded.”

Karnail said he also applied for land at Nachna in Jaisalmer district some 20 years ago, but till today, there has been no progress. Applications can be made any number of times until the land is allotted. Once the allotment is made, the person cannot apply. 

Thousands of landless farm labourers from different districts of Rajasthan have been awaiting land allotment for two decades. The government has taken their applications several times through the colonisation department for providing irrigated and rainfed (non-irrigated) land in the Indira Gandhi Canal Project area, but work has not been completed. Many of the applicants have died in the meantime. The allocation is part of the state government's policy of giving land to the landless people from all categories.

Twenty years ago, Sukhdev Singh, a Dalit from Bhagatpura, applied for allotment in Jaisalmer district. He kept waiting, but the land allotment letter did not come. He died three years ago at the age of 60. Similarly, Pritam Singh Chhimpa, a farm labourer from Sangaria, applied 20 years ago, but did not get the land allotted before his death at the age of 85. “My father visited many government offices, but nothing happened,” said Ashok Singh (60), Chhimpa's son.

Landless farm laborers protesting in front of the District Collectorate demanding land allotment in Hanumangarh. (Photo-Vijay Midha)

Reasons for delay

A former BJP MLA from Jaisalmer, Sangsingh Bhati, told 101Reporters that the then government led by Ashok Gehlot banned land allotment in 2009. “However, in 2018, the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government announced the completion of land allotment by lifting the ban. Soon after, elections were announced and the work got stuck,” he said.

Being another election year, in February, colonisation minister Saleh Mohammad announced in a camp organised by the department at Nachna in Jaisalmer that agricultural land would be allotted in April to the landless who had been waiting for 20 years. The calendar of formal programmes in this regard will be released soon, he said.

When 101Reporters sought the minister’s comment on repeated delays, Mohammad said, “We wanted to do the work of land allotment seriously, but the administration got busy in Prashasan Gaon Ke Sang Abhiyan [a programme run by the state government to solve the problems of villagers]. Something will happen only after the elections now.” 

Meanwhile, Bhati alleged that the government’s preference was to give land to big solar and wind energy companies. “Thousands of bighas have been given to these companies, while preparations are on to give thousands more. The application forms of the landless are being deliberately kept pending.”

On the contrary, the government had cited stay orders from courts from time to time as the reason for pending land allotments. The government had informed the Assembly that the issue of stay orders from the High Court from 2013 to 2018 in the special allocation category and from 2019 to February 2023 in the general allocation category has been the main reason for the pendency.

The landless are still waiting for allotment because the market prices have skyrocketed, while the government allotment rate is still nominal. There is a different process for land allotment in the Indira Canal area. In the special allotment category, land is allotted through auction, for which the rate is fixed at Rs 49,000 per bigha.

There is a provision to take 35% of the amount from the allottee in lump sum and the remaining amount in 15 instalments. Under the general allotment category, the price of one murabba (25 bigha) land has been fixed at Rs 1 lakh and there is a provision to recover it in 20 easy instalments.

“Like me, many villagers applied for land in Mohangarh in Jaisalmer district 20 years ago. It was expected that the government would allot the land soon. Initially, we visited the colonisation department offices in Mohangarh and Jaisalmer, but got only assurances. Tired and exhausted, we stopped going there,” said Ramkumar Khichad (61) of Charanwasi in Hanumangarh district.

Now only the organisations of farm labourers raise the issue from time to time. The demand for allotment of land to the landless is also included in the demands for which farm labour organisations hold protests and demonstrations from time to time. The officials of the farm labour organisations keep submitting memorandums to the administration.

Landless farm laborers protesting with loudspeakers in front of the District Collectorate demanding land allotment in Hanumangarh (Photo-Vijay Midha)

Number crunching

“About six months ago, when we traced the people waiting for land allotment in Hanumangarh tehsil, about 250 landless people showed us the receipts of Rs 500 they had paid while applying with the colonisation department,” said Raghuveer Verma, a leader of the Akhil Bhartiya Khet Mazdoor Union. 

Claiming that thousands of applications have been submitted in Bikaner district, Verma said the department officials claimed that the entire record was with the Revenue Department following the merger of Chhattargarh and Kolayat colonisation tehsils with it.

Sube Singh Yadav, a retired Indian Administrative Service officer who has been the commissioner of the colonisation department, said, “Yes, it is true that the colonisation tehsils were merged into the Revenue Department. When the revenue officials started working on this, there were allegations of allotment of land to ineligible people arbitrarily and wrongly. Departmental action was also taken against many officers. Anti-Corruption Bureau took action in some cases. Subsequently, the Revenue Department officials stopped interfering in this matter.” 

If we look at the numbers given by the government in the state Assembly this year, there are 61,215 pending applications in the general allotment category and 34,967 in special allotment category with the colonisation department of Jaisalmer district. According to the government, 3,581 of the total 99,763 applications have been disposed of.  

The government had told the state Assembly that the applications have been pending since 2004, so there was a need to recheck the eligibility of the applicants. Allotment action can be taken only after investigation.

However, Yadav assessed that it was no longer possible to complete the land allotment work. “Long ago, a policy was made at the government level to give land to solar and wind companies. All the governments that came afterwards have continued in this direction. Now there is not even that much land left for the applicants,” he said.

When asked whether any serious work is going on for land allotment, Additional Commissioner Narendra Pal Singh at the Bikaner headquarters of the colonisation department said it was not possible to say anything in view of the elections now.

Edited by Rekha Pulinnoli

Cover photo - Ramkumar Khichad, Charanvasi (Photo - Jaylal Verma)