Revenue minister agrees in principle to tenancy law change for evicted tenant farmers in Palghar

A step has been taken towards securing land rights for evicted tenant farmers in the Dahanu and Talasari areas of Palghar district. Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule has given in-principle approval to making the necessary amendments to the tenancy law. The approval was given at a high-level meeting at Mantralaya.

The meeting was called in the background of the "Samvidhan Haq Sangharsh Morcha" launched by the Shramjivi Sanghatana. Bawankule chaired it. It was decided that barren land actually being cultivated by people should be recorded in the names of those cultivating it, and that the tenancy law should be amended for this.

Those present included MLA Sneha Dubey Pandit, Shramjivi Sanghatana president Sita Ghatal, Balaram Bhoir and Vijay Jadhav, along with several other key office-bearers of the organisation.

Thousands of hard-working tribal families have been denied legal rights despite tilling the land for generations, only because official entries, that is, records, do not exist. The amendment will be very important for such families.

Besides the land question, the meeting discussed other issues in detail. These included speedy disposal of pending forest rights claims, rehabilitation of those freed from bonded labour, expansion of gaothan (village habitation areas), and the complicated hurdles faced in obtaining Aadhaar cards and birth certificates.

The meeting also decided to give special consideration, under the gaothan expansion scheme, to landless Katkari families who repeatedly go to brick kilns for work. The government has accepted the demand for necessary changes to the original notification so that they are not denied house plots for lack of proof of continuous residence in a single village.

The revenue minister clearly directed that no poor beneficiary should be left out of schemes because of a lack of coordination between departments or confusion over documents. He said a simpler procedure should be put in place and the responsibility of the officials concerned should be fixed.

Vivek Pandit, chairman of the state-level Tribal Development Review Committee (with minister's rank), took a firm stand and said government decisions secured through the morcha must not remain only on paper. He said the organisation's fight would continue until eligible families actually receive land rights, permanent houses and certificates.