States should create land pools for rural poor: Draft policy

In order to provide the rural poor the minimum land required for building a home and growing crops, the government has proposed the creation of a land pool at the village level.

The smallest unit in this case will be the village or a cluster of villages, because it would not be realistic to expect people to migrate long distances to obtain their rights, the new draft land reforms policy states.

The utilisation of the land pool for the purpose of homestead land or agriculture shall begin as soon as the pool is created at the village or cluster level.

The land from the land pool would come from waste agricultural land, surplus ceiling land or land which had been acquired after being occupied.

For the purpose of creating a land pool, the states shall explore all available opportunities like conducting an inventory of government, ceiling surplus and other categories of lands, the draft policy says.

As part of the inventory, comprehensive details of these lands, including information about current occupants, should be collected and made available to people, it adds.

The states should also settle all pending applications for regularisation of unobjectionable occupation of government land by conducting a special drive in a time-bound manner, the draft policy holds.

The draft policy was finalised at a meeting chaired by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh last week.