Bhubaneswar: To recognise and protect the interest of sharecroppers, the revenue department has prepared a draft of the new land leasing law and is targeting to bring the new legislation by November this year.
“To recognise and provide all type of benefits to the farmers, who actually work in the field, the government has decided to bring the new law. We have received suggestions from landowners and sharecroppers, and the new act will come soon,” cooperation minister Damodar Rout said here Thursday.
Rout is also a member of the inter-ministerial committee constituted under the chairmanship of revenue and disaster management minister Bijayshree Routray to prepare the bill.
According to a senior revenue department official, the department has finalised the draft and it has been sent to law department for its approval. After the law department’s nod, the draft will be placed before the Cabinet for its approval. “We hope the bill will come by November,” the officer said.
Earlier, the revenue department had decided to bring the law during the last session of Assembly. However, due to non-clearance by law department, it was not taken up in the Assembly.
As per the draft, an agreement will be signed between landowners and sharecroppers on mutually agreed terms and conditions. The agreement will be signed in presence of concerned revenue inspector or sarpanch and he/she will be required counter sign the deed. The duration of the agreement can be from one year to 10 years.
It will ensure that the landowner do not lose his/her land at any cost by signing the agreement. The lease of agricultural land belonging to STs in scheduled areas can be given to only ST sharecroppers while in others areas, the SC or ST farmers can only take farmland of SC or ST land owners on lease, the draft said.
The landowners have to pay rent and cess for the land while the sharecropper cannot sub-let or mortgage the leases land.
The government has also made provisions for the sharecroppers to avail loan from government agencies by producing the agreement document. However, the farmer can avail loan only on crops and not on land. If any dispute arises, it will be resolved through third party mediation, gram panchayat and gram sabha, it said.
Once, the law comes into force, the sharecroppers can avail of crop insurance, crop loan, compensation in case of crop loss and all other benefits provided by the state government. Earlier, these benefits were for the landowners.
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