[Reader-list] On Kerala's Land Question

[A. Mani]

Source: http://www.pragoti.in/node/4749


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The need of the hour is a non-partisan and secular effort to protect
the Land Reforms Act. There has been an uniform attempt by the UDF
government to derail the process of reclamation of public land that
was initiated by the predecessor LDF government. Comrade V S
Achuthanandan writes.

The movement the Kerala government started on 13 May 2007 against
Tata’s violations of the law, as it had committed unauthorised seizure
of land and kept its monopoly at Munnar, triggered off a huge
enlightenment towards the land issues in the state. The task force set
up by the government went ahead with its mission, ignoring stiff
opposition and a swarm of false propaganda, did manage to destroy
about a hundred illegal constructions and reclaim more than twelve
thousand acre of encroached public land. It was an unparalleled
advancement aimed to chain illegal landlords and conserve ecology
while protecting the essence of the historical Land Reforms Act.
Despite the fact that the movement did not gather the expected
momentum, courtesy a slew of controversies, the process succeeded in
creating a fresh awareness against destroying the nature, against
faulty classification of public land to help some people and trusts
amass it and the wayward ways of the realty mafia.

Acts of reclaiming encroached public land started enjoying huge public
endorsement. And with the enactment of a law banning the land-filling
of paddy fields and wetlands in (2007) and the execution of a
programme to enhance agri-production, land utilisation began to
witness a progressive shift in the state.

But the incumbent United Democratic Front (UDF) government, which
follows the tradition of the 1959’s notorious farce called Liberation
Struggle (vimochanasamaram), is now all set to undermine this
progress. This government came to power on 18 May 2011. And its very
first budget presented on July 8, 2011, by finance minister and the
proponent of a certain 'Labouring Class Theory', KM Mani, contained
two lethal suggestions. The first  endorsed a view to allow 5 per cent
of plantations for any needs including 'tourism' and to knock out
cashew grown areas from the Land Ceiling Act. This suggestion is
implemented now. Further, the government has issued orders to legalise
land-filled paddy-fields and wetlands that are done so before 2005. It
should be noted that the move to legalise land-filling of fields has
ignored the data bank on such areas, which was in its last lap to
completion. True, with such measures, the Oommen Chandy-headed UDF
government has proved that it goes by its motto: "Faster and Farther".
Yes, in just 15 months since taking over, it managed to strangulate
the Land Reforms Act.

Even as these 'reforms', which smell the rot of the ‘Liberation
Struggle’ are being implemented under erstwhile Young Turk Chandy,
Young Turks of the day such as VD Satheesan and TN Prathapan (Congress
MLAs) have come out in protest, triggering another row. The attempts
to belittle the issue to factionalism inside the Congress and the UDF
and to a mere dispute over the ownership of an estate (the 279-acre
Cherunelli Lower Estate in Palakkad district) are bizarre to say the
least. It is a shameful fact that a ‘land mafia empire’ that violates
all the laws of the land, exists in the state that houses more than
500,000 landless families. A majority of families, which hold two to
10 cents of land, are bound to pay taxes and follow rules, while the
Tatas and Harisson Malayalam Plantation  go ahead with their ‘land-
empire'. In Munnar, the Tatas hold more than 60,000 acres, while
Harisson Malayalam exploits about 79,000 acres spread across eight
districts in the state. Again, in Nelliampathi (Palakkad), certain
people have encroached thousands of acres spread across 52 estates
without any valid legal document to prove their ownership and are
running their own autocracy there.

Rules are violated

What is going on is violation of the law as Plantation giants breach
all laws and challenge the people. They now enjoy the protection of
the law to exploit 5 per cent of the plantation land for real estate
requirements! A big chunk of the estate land under lease includes the
land taken away from tribal communities. It would not take more than
25,000 acres to compensate these tribal families with 1 acre each. But
the government feigns helplessness when it comes to providing tribal
communities with the land they are legally entitled to, pushing the
multitudes of land-lost tribals to people prisons while protesting
against the government. And it is at this juncture that the government
decides to legalise the exploitation of about 85,000 acres of the 1.7
million acres of estate land for, say, tourism. Even if one argues
that small plantations that do not fall under the purview of the Land
Ceiling Act form a major slice of the 1.7 million acre estate land, of
the 300,000 acres of estate land held by big encroachers such as the
Tatas, Harisson and the Believer's Chruch (there are about 250 of
them), about 15,000 acres will be set aside for real estate demands.

In fact, the move to exclude plantations from the Land Ceiling Act was
positively aimed to promote cash crops, gain foreign exchange and
ensure the welfare of plantation workers, and was taking into account
the specificity of plantation crops. But as time went by, this
exclusion has evolved to become Land Reforms' very own Frankenstein.
When plantations were re-classified, sliced up and sold in parts, and
their timber stocks were looted away, those who had given away their
spare-land along with the hundreds of thousands of landless people
eligible for excess land became helpless spectators. The rule that a
five-member family should not hold more than 15 acres was violated at
will, thanks to the inertia or complicity of the revenue, registration
departments as well as the carelessness of the governments and the
indirect facilitation by courts.

Political will: the need of the hour

The main issue at present is that of the 'bonus’, that, 5 percent of
the plantation land could be maladjusted for real-estate ends,  given
by Chandi and Mani in favor of the plantation giants, who have already
siphoned huge profits utilizing the land reforms act itself. Some have
a design to avoid the original issue and prune the whole discussion
down to the limits of 280 acres of the Cherunelli Estates. Along with
the issue of the ‘bonus’ of 5 percent given to the plantation mafia,
we have other issues to be considered  as the most serious ones of the
kind: the government should take over the Harrisson Malayalam
Plantation estates, the estates in Nelliyampathi and all the estates
that have outlived their lease period; should scrap its decision to
divide and sell out the Kinaloor Estate; should evict the new
encroachments at Munnar and retrieve the government land; should
safeguard the essence of the Land Reforms Act and take over and run
the estates that have exhausted their lease period; and it should
distribute the excess land to tribal and the other landless people
with a view to ensure that every family gets land. The discussions
should develop in such a way.  This is not just a legal issue as
Satheesan and co. portrays it to be. It is a political issue, too. It
is not going to solve the whole issue if it is viewed solely to be a
single case of legal violations. Didn’t we see that it had been stayed
by the court when steps were initiated to reclaim the plantation, that
had outlived the lease period, from the illegal custody of Harrisons
Malayalam Ltd? Such legal proceedings won’t end even by centuries.
And, as its result, Tatas, Harrissons and co. will go on ‘legally’
plundering the property of the state, fooling the people. So,
political will is very important.

Everybody knows that the Harrisons Malayalam is the biggest monopoly
and they mock the people the most. They filed an affidavit at the high
court recently that, they are ready to release 834.53 acre excess land
that they had been holding for the past. In 1982 the land Board at
Sulthan Bathery (Wayanad district) had given its verdict that
Harrisons Malayalam should release 1,834 acres of excess land. Now,
this grand overlords of land who enjoyed the custody and profits of
those 1,834 acres for the last 30 years, are becoming generous that
they shall release 834.53-acre excess land that the government may
take custody. The high court promptly agrees to it and orders to take
its custody. It may further take decades to decide the dispute over
the whereabouts of these 834.53 acres, that where this land exactly
is, and for its actual taking over to take place. Court stays shall
rain in.

The revenue minister has already declared that Harrisons’ plantations
that spread across eight districts would be wholly taken over. From
this what could be naturally assumed is that it will be the old
sequence again of the government ordering the takeover, the Harrisons
approaching the court, again the government advocate playing out to
lose the cases, then the court providing a stay in favor of the
encroacher and so on. Two days ago the district collector of
Paththanamthitta had ordered to confiscate the 831 acres of Harrisons’
plantation in Konni, of which the lease period has exhausted on 8
April 2010. The next day itself the High Court stayed it. In Konni
itself, 1,789 acres of Harrisons Malayalam had run out of its lease
period on 13 March 2012. Same is the status of the Harrisons
plantations in Chengara and Laaha (both in Pathanamthitta district).

It had been clearly in light that the very existence of Harrisons
Malayalam plantation itself had been illegal and deceitful. The Rubber
Producing Company of a European named John Mackey had already gone
extinct due to the Land reforms act and the FERA act in 1964 and the
land of the said company had to come under government custody. But,
some Indian executives of the company formed a new company and grabbed
the lease rights and thus Malayalam Plantation company came to
existence. This Malayalam Plantation bought the shares of Harrisons
company that had been making regular purchases of products from it and
then became Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. It went to the hands of the
Goenka group (RPG), which is in the row of monopolies such as Tata and
Birla. This company had in total 76,769.8 acres of lease-land with
them.  In 1982, the company had submitted before the Sulthan Bathery
Land Tribunal that they have 65,767.75 acres in their hand. This means
that they illegally sold more than 11,000 acres beforehand. Now as the
company’s submission at the Kerala High Court shows, it has around
59,000 acres with it.  This again indicates that the process of
illegal sell-out and unauthorised sub-leasing was on for long. They
have already sold more than 20,000 acres. The government must take
over and confiscate all the estates of Harrisons Malayalam and the
land that were sold by them for, the lease period of such land had
exhausted. It should begin criminal proceedings against the company as
the company had committed clear violations of law; and, should also
take all the necessary actions against the company that may reimburse
the government losses due to the said violations. Even though the last
Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had started action on the
report given by the then revenue principal secretary Niveditha P
Haran, as the company approached Kerala High court, it was hindered by
court intervention. Four benches of Kerala High Court retracted from
hearing the case of Harrisons Malayalam and, it is the fifth bench
that considers hearing the case now.

Put the plantations under Forest department supervision

The present dispute is about the forest land at Nelliampathy. The LDF
government had taken over around 4,000 acres of plantation there. Now
about 6,000 acres are to be taken over immediately. It has become
clear that the ‘owners’ who are in possession of these plantations
have no rights to it. No title deeds, tax receipts and no idea about
the measure of the land. Many had not even paid the rent. Many had
sub-leased the land; had divided and sold out the land part by part.
Many had swindled crores from banks with fabricated documents. Banks
have put up boards on such site as loans were never repaid. These
plantations should be confiscated by the government and the Forest
Department should run the estates under its supervision. Judicial
probe or an inquiry by a committee of legislative assembly must be
conducted to find the truth about what all happened to the land till
date. Instead, the present government is trying to exonerate the
illegal encroachers naming them as farmers and to further leave the
government land free for them to plunder again.  It is as part of this
tact that the government has facilitated the background for the court
stay that hindered the process to take over the Cherunelli Estate. The
Forest Department's plea that the service of eminent lawyers of the
Supreme Court should be availed for this case had been discarded and
the case was given to the government pleaders. One can see that the
argument that the government pleaders are repeatedly scoring own goal
by yielding to easy defeat is not all that baseless. It is widely
known that the present officials who man the Law Department and the
AG’s (Advocate General) office are standing for the plantation mafia.
The mastery in getting defeated in court cases was well demonstrated
in the Mullapperiyar case. A rare miracle on that shows AG on
government side and his family’s office on the opposite.  It is not
that difficult to foresee the result of this show.

PC George, the chief whip, categorically says that even God himself
will fail if He appears for the Kerala government in the Nelliyampathi
cases. The Law Minister, Maney, and the kerala congress groups of
various shades swear that the encroachers of  Nelliyampathi are really
farmers who enjoy perpetual lease rights. The chief whip might be
basing on the knowledge that the ‘God’ who comes to argue the case is
the AG and behind him is the Law Minister Maney to prophesy the
defeat. Nelliyampathi estates were declared to be forest in 1909
itself. The High Court of Kerala had given its verdict in 2000 that
even if there were estates in Nelliyampathy, those estates’ status
would be of forest land and would be subject to the Forest
Conservation Act of 1980. The Supreme Court also had given its verdict
so.  It was clear from the report submitted by the high power
committee appointed by the Supreme Court that, all land transactions
in Nelliyampathy were invalid. If somebody comes up with an argument
that some people who have no connection with Nelliyampathy area are
really farmers of that land, is it not their responsibility to prove
how those people got the land there? How can these people be migrant
farmers whereas they have acres of land and other properties in other
places? The people living near Nelliyampathy do not have an inch of
land in Nelliyampathy. Is it not proper to assume that these should
have been the possible section to migrate to Nelliyampathy for
farming?

The land in Nelliyampathy should have automatically come to government
hand for, the exhaustion of lease period, breach of lease agreement
provisions, possessing of land without any authentic document; and
besides, solely for it being the forest land. The only thing to be
considered while doing so is to safeguard the interests of the
permanent workers employed there. It is not legal to protect the
estate-runners (it is incorrect to call them ‘estate owners’) of
Nelliyampathy in the name of farming or migration. It is also notable
that no legal obstructions hindered when 4,000 acres (out of the total
10,000 acres) of land including the Thooththanpara Estate had been
taken over by the last LDF government.

Now, let us see what happens to the Kinaloor Estate. Kinaloor Estate
has 2,400-acres in Kozhikode district. The last LDF government took
over the estate as efforts to sell it out violating Land Reform laws
came to its attention. On the one side, the government was under
pressure from those who had been deceived and had paid, though
illegally, to buy parts of the estate and some encroachers, and on the
other, it had to consider the problems of the plantation workers’
sustenance of living. The LDF government decided to study all aspects
of the issue and take a legal decision. And now, the UDF government
has decided to sell off that land at throwaway price to encroachers.
The decision was taken in a meeting presided over by the Chief
Minister, Oommen Chandy, himself. And the estate, which is worth
around Rs 700 crore according to market prices and Rs 195 crore
according to the fare value fixed by the government, is decided to be
sold for a mere Rs 40 crore. This is nothing but blatant violation of
Land Reforms and looting in daylight. And such an illegal deal is
happening in a state where lakhs of landless families who long to
build houses if they get at least five cents each.

The need of the hour is a non-partisan and secular effort to protect
the Land Reforms Act. Congress MLAs Satheesan, Prathapan and co, who
express different opinions in the Nelliyampathi estate issue, are
supporting the UDF government in all other issues related to land.
Isn't it self-deception? The issue is whether they are ready for a
joint struggle towards a few basic demands, such as 'strike down the
decision to allow 5% of each plantation for real-estate use; reclaim
plantations reclassified by violating the Land Ceiling Act; take over
plantations whose lease has expired; reclaim plantations that breached
lease conditions as excess land and legally redistribute them to the
landless, and so on.



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Best

A. Mani



-- 
A. Mani
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