Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s scheme to give an annual grant of Rs 5,000 per acre to Bengal’s farmers faces a test — about 30 lakh of the 72 lakh farmers, around 41 per cent, don’t have updated land records to claim the money.
The hurdle — which came to the fore during a meeting between the officials of the agriculture department and the land and land reforms department at Nabanna on Tuesday — could create chaos in the rural areas in the next few months, sources in the administration said.
“According to the scheme, the grant will be given to farmers only. If a large number of farmers cannot produce records to claim they have land to cultivate, I am not sure how block-level officials will give money to them,” said a senior official.
Sources in the agriculture department said they came to know that farmers who have Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) and farmers who take loan from cooperative societies usually have updated land records. This figure will not be more than 42 lakh, the sources added.
KCCs are issued to farmers after verifying land records. The cards are issued only if farmers have land in their name and the card itself carries details of their plots. The cooperative societies also disburse loan to farmers after verifying land papers.
In rural Bengal, updating land records, particularly for farmland, is a problem as farmers often don’t complete mutation after buying or inheriting a land parcel.
Mutation of a property or land is the process to change title ownership from one person to another when a property is sold or transferred. Even when the state government announces waiver of mutation fee for farmland, farmers do not show much interest as the process requires submission of several documents.
The grants scheme is also silent on sharecroppers. In Bengal, many people who possess farmland allow others to cultivate their plots against a 30 per cent share of the produce.
“The sharecroppers invest entirely while cultivating a plot. Now, if the owners get money and the sharecroppers are deprived, there will be a serious law and order problem in the state. As most sharecroppers don’t have a written agreement with the land-owners, the government is unsure about the total number of sharecroppers. But the figure is not negligible,” said an official.
Sources said the ruling Trinamul establishment would face a stiff challenge in implementing the scheme properly.
“The chief minister has announced the scheme apparently to woo farmers across the state after many had started agitations in some pockets demanding proper price for their produce. But if a large section of farmers is deprived of funds, it could backfire for the ruling party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls,” said a source.
It has been decided that the agriculture department will give the money required for the scheme, and the block development officers will disburse the funds after verifying farmers’ applications.
A BDO in North 24-Parganas said: “I am yet to get the details of the scheme. But it would not be possible to give money to a person who fails to establish himself as a farmer as no government officer will like to face charges of misappropriation of funds.”
A BDO in Bankura said the scheme to give Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin in case of a farmer’s death is easier to implement compared to giving direct financial grants.
“In case of death of a farmer, even if he or she does not have updated land records, compensation can be given after an inquiry by a magistrate. But it is not possible to verify applications of farmers who don’t have updated land records as thousands of requests will be submitted in each block of the state,” the BDO said.
Additional reporting by Snehamoy Chakraborty
