(a) whether the Land Reforms is an important policy instrument for the
alleviation of rural poverty during the Ninth Plan period;
(b) if so, the progress made in various States in this regard;
(c) whether the Planning Commission has expressed its unhappiness over the
lack of progress on this aspect in its mid-term plan appraisal; and
(d) if so, the reaction of the Government thereto and the action taken or
proposed to be taken in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI ANNASAHED M.K. PATIL)
(a) to (d) A Statement is placed on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (b) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED
QUESTION NO. 1418 DUE FOR REPLY ON 27.11.2001
(a) to (d) : The Schemes/activities undertaken towards land reforms have
brought about a significant change in agrarian structure. 92% of the
holdings are now wholly owned and self-operative in the country. Ownership
rights have been granted to 20 million tillers and an area of 5.31 million
acres of ceiling surplus land has been distributed to 5.54 million rural
poor. Moreover, an area of 14.75 million acres of Government Wastelands and
2.18 million acres of Bhoodanland have also been distributed among the
eligible rural poor. That apart, 12.42 million tenants have their rights
protected over an area of 15.63 million acres of land and 0.43 million acres
of alienated land has been restored to STs. The Scheme of Computerisation of
Land Records has been implemented in 569 districts of the country out of 599
districts.
The Planning Commission had observed in its mid-term plan appraisal that
several factors had constrained the progress of Computerisation of Land
Records such as delay in transfer of funds to the implementing authority by
the State Governments, power shortages and delay in the construction of room
with air conditioner for installation of computer and other equipment, delay
in development of appropriate and comprehensive software as per requirement
of the State Government, delay in supply and installation of the hardware,
lack of adequate training facilities to staff to handle computers and
non-availability of good vendors for taking up data entry work.
With a view to speeding up the progress of the Scheme of Computerisation of
Land Records, the State Govt.s/UTs were impressed upon to take effective
steps for transfer of funds to the implementing Agencies in time and also to
take up data entry work through private vendor so that the work could be
completed within a specified time-frame. The State Govt.s/UTs have also been
requested to procure and install hardware at the earliest and organise basic
training programmes in order to train the Revenue Officials at the taluk
level to facilitate speedy implementation of the Scheme.