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3. Common Property Resources
3.1 In the context of villages in India, CPRs perform several functions in terms of their contribution to people’s livelihood by adding to household income, by enabling livestock sustenance etc. CPRs are important sources from which domestic energy needs of the landless households are met. Similarly, dependence on CPRs by both landowners and landless possessing livestock is considerable, too. Livestock dependant households derive large amount of animal fodder and water requirements from CPRs. Furthermore, CPRs are important from ecological perspective, too. Thus, CPRs are critical to support rural livelihoods (livestock and land-based) and ecology.
3.2 That there is not much clarity on what constitutes CPRs out of the various categories used by the government for their land use statistics (i.e., 9-fold classification). The lack of clarity towards clear definition of CPR is the root cause of the improper public interventions. This has also meant that the size of CPR land has been declining over the years. There has been a steady decrease in all kinds of common lands – pastures, village forests, ponds, or even burial grounds. This is due to diversion of CPRs for urbanisation, industrial needs, mining practices, pressure of developmental projects like dam, roads, school, homestead needs – distribution to landless families, cremation grounds, playground, etc. Moreover, the area under CPR is threatened due to encroachments by resource-rich farmers. Over-exploitation of CPR definitely points to poor-upkeep of these resources. This also points to the fact that traditional institutions have either weakened or disappeared and have failed to enforce norms. Also, Revenue Dept control has never been interested in productivity, being too remote to manage and with lack of funds to develop it as their major role has been more of a record keeper rather than that of developer. The complex nature of land administration has only worked to the disadvantage of the rural poor. To further aggravate the situation is the inconsistencies in land records. Thus, there is visible lack of a long-term perspective towards land. In the present context of aggressive market forces, the absence of a clear land policy addressing the multiple uses of land is bound to jeopardize the interests of landless and the land poor.
4. BROAD FRAMEWORK
4.1 Though land is a State subject, a National Land Reforms Policy is considered instrumental in providing a policy framework for action by the Centre, States and PRIs in the present context and for bringing in accountability at each level. The Constitutional arrangements have devolved a responsibility upon the Union Government to oversee the fostering of economic and social justice in the States. Land Reforms remain a means of distributive justice to the marginalised and, therefore, a part of the Preamble to the Constitution.

4.2 There is clear evidence that the smaller farms utilise land more efficiently, and labour absorption and employment generation (Indian population being so huge employment creation at the rural levels is a must) on small farms is much more compared to their medium and large counterparts. Small holdings ensure food security and improve rural highly employment. The skewed land relations and distorted production relations are responsible for an inefficient utilisation of land and labour resources, low level of infrastructure, mounting social tensions and the growing violence. Land Reforms measures, in the past, have proved inadequate — they were designed and instituted in small measures by a weak implementation machinery beset with internal contradictions and without mobilising the rural poor. Introduction of wage employment programmes like NREGA have led to an enhancement in the bargaining strength of the rural labour. Farms contributing more internally generated labour stand at an advantage vis-à-vis farms hiring in more labour. This is likely to lead either to disintegration of the large and the medium farms into smaller units or to mechanisation-capitalisation on large farms. Both these processes are already in evidence. A set of comprehensive measures, eliciting strong institutional support and integrating the people into the process for accelerated outcomes is likely to provide the impetus needed for revitalising the reformist measures.

4.3 The land based conflicts in the rural areas add to the other forms of conflicts and generally place an efficiency burden upon the rural economy and society. The hunger for land amongst the landless poor remains undiminished and has given rise to several movements. Irrespective of their ideological considerations the strength of different movements revolving around land could be internalised for State sponsored lands reforms. The role of civil society organisations is recognised in promotion of more equititious land relations particularly in such areas where land movements are relatively weak. There is an imperative to recognise the State sponsored land based and legal access programmes and community based initiatives like the land based collectives.
4.4. Effective implementation of land reforms requires proper management of land records and the correctness and accuracy of the record-of-rights. The land management continues largely in the pre-independence mode, and it is the common experience that the record-of-rights do not reflect the ground situation. The purpose of the revisional survey and settlement operations was to update the record-of-rights and revise the rent rolls to extract the maximum for the State. Even where the survey operations have been conducted, instead of being completed in the stipulated four years, they have dragged on for more than 40 years in some cases thereby rendering the new records already obsolete. The need for mapping of land parcels and for accurate and updated land records to support the rights of the weak, and for a host of other reasons that facilitate effective land reforms, systematic management of land records is very essential.
4.5 In improving land records, the new technology and expansion of technological base, if designed properly has good potential. It ranges from facilitating survey operations to digitisation of maps, creation of records, affording easy accessibility and bringing the land management into public domain right till the grassroots. This is, however, to be taken with a pinch of caution as no technology acts by itself and has to be backed by pro-poor ground truthing.
4.6 There is an urgent need to revisit the debate on tenancy. The States are classified into two major groups- those which recognise tenancy and regulate its conditions including rent, period of lease, etc. and those which prohibit tenancy outright. There is evidence aplenty that despite prohibitions tenancy exists significantly. The 60^th Round of National Sample Survey for the year 2004 establishes that the leased-in area forms nearly 7 percents of the operated area while 11.5 percent of the rural household leased-in land. However, there are other micro studies that point out that the NSS data does not fully capture the incidence of tenancy which varies between 15 to 35 percent. About 90 percent of the leased area is informal and unrecorded. The landless and the marginal farmers constitute the bulk (91%) of those leasing-in land. Under conditions of capitalisation and commercialisation of agriculture, tenancy has taken newer forms. Studies indicate large variations of tenancy, including the conventional share cropping, reverse tenancy, contract farming, reverse sub-tenancy, short term lease, seasonal lease, long term lease, lease in perpetuity, group leasing, pool leasing, etc. While some of these are favourable to the tenant, some others vary from downright unfavourable to less than favourable. There are yet some other forms which remain to be assessed. This will also equip the small lessors with the legal rights structure. Hence, there is a need to re-open the scope of tenancy registration in a regular manner, because only that will guarantee due rights of tenant.
4.7 Yet another basic requirement for addressing land question adequately is the preparation of land use plans from the village land up to state and national level. Such land use plan should capture the overarching concerns: ecological, food production, livelihood and allocating land for industry and development purposes. The land use plan can be developed and executed involving people, States and Central governments, and dedicated non-governmental organizations. Absence of such plans contributed to rampant and indiscriminate conversion of agriculture land for non-agricultural purposes having detrimental effects.

4.8 Thus, we see that there are several perspectives that could be drawn to land issues – equity, ecological, growth-efficiency, communitarian and gender perspectives-which often place conflicting claims on the land resources both in terms of understanding and strategies. It is indeed a difficult task to reconcile these perspectives into a cogent and acceptable policy propositions. Nonetheless, this policy document retains a firm focus on the rural poor.

POLICY IMPERATIVES
5. LAND CEILING
5.1 The land ceiling programme continues to retain its relevance; there is an urgent need to revisit and revive the same. The States may have the option to revise the ceiling even on regional considerations without exceeding the upper limit.

5.2 There should be discontinuation of the existing pattern of exemptions to religious, educational, charitable and industrial organisations, plantations, fisheries and other special categories. The religious institutions should not be allowed more than one unit of 15 acres while Research Organisations, Agricultural Universities Educational & Other Institutions and others may be allowed more than one unit on customised case-to-case bases.

5.3 Where more than one unit is allowed in addition to general exemption it shall be incumbent upon such beneficiary organisations to purchase from the open market and distribute an equivalent area amongst the landless poor.
5.4 Not more than one appeal and one revision should be allowed to be decided by Composite Tribunals including representatives of the landless poor and reputed community based organisations. Boards/ Fast Track Courts and Land Tribunals under Article 323-B, should be setup in all States.
5.5 There needs to be an urgent physical survey of all ceiling land including those not distributed and those in unauthorised possession and must be restored in the same transaction.

5.6 Not more than one acre of wet land and two acres of dry land should be allotted as ceiling surplus land.

6. BHOODAN LANDS
6.1 The status of the Bhoodan lands remains indeterminate. There should be an authoritative survey of all Bhoodan lands in a campaign mode involving the civil society and organisations of the rural poor and the Gram Sabha within a specified time frame.
6.2 Recognising the fact that multiple transfers might have taken place in the intervening period it is necessary that appropriate changes be brought to annul the effect of these transfers.
6.3 Restoration of possession and distribution of the Bhoodan lands to the rural poor including their village collectives should be completed along with the survey in the same or continued transactions.
7. TENANCY REFORMS
7.1 Tenancy should be legalised in order to provide the rural poor with access to land, discourage the land being left fallow and for enhanced occupational mobility of the rural poor. Subsequently, depending upon the experience leasing could be legalised for all areas up to the ceiling limits.

7.2 In order to facilitate land leasing, standard contracts in simple language protecting the rights of both the parties should be devised. Steps should be taken to create institutions for decentralised enforcement of tenancy contracts.

7.3 Women farmers’ co-operatives and other women land based groups should be encouraged on a preferential basis to lease in land as experiences show that such organisations of women farmers have emerged as the most viable farming units.
7.4 All States should impose ceiling on operational holdings and not just ownership holdings. Under no circumstances should the landowners having land above the ceiling limit be allowed to lease in land for agricultural purposes. By any household, total operation area, including owned and leased-in land, should not exceed the ceiling land.
7.5 The fixation of fair rent for the land leased may be reconsidered in areas with high institutional strength and the market determined rent should be allowed to prevail.
7.6 All tenants and sub-tenants including share-croppers/under-raiyats may be recognised by law regulating incidents and conditions of tenancy. There should be adequate safeguards including adequate institutional support and rural development schemes to overcome poverty and indebtedness. The financial institutions will be required to come up with suitable schemes of credit support directed either through the collateral institutions or Self-Help Groups to the tenants.

8. HOMESTEAD RIGHTS

8.1 Although there has been wider recognition of the housing needs of the poor, there is still no adequate realisation of the provision of homesteads along with housing for the poor, especially in rural areas. Homestead land and a house need to be recognised within the minimum rights structure of every homeless/landless. A priority list of landless/homeless should be prepared with the approval of the Gram Sabha. A minimum of 10-15 cents of land should be provided for each landless-homeless household in a time bound manner and land entitlement should be preferably in the name of women with heritable but inalienable rights.

8.2 The SC/ST and OBC beneficiaries, as decided at the State level, may be given land in contiguous blocks with infrastructural facilities like road, electricity, school, drinking water, health centre and technological and extension support for supplementing the livelihood, etc.
8.3 A National Policy on Homelessness should be prepared and put in place in consultation with the States.
9. FOREST LANDS
9.1 For effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 by the States it becomes necessary to create awareness and mobilise the Gram Sabha to recognise and protect the rights of the forest dwellers and the tribal communities in a definite time frame.
9.2 Forests have traditionally served as commons both ecologically and economically for the tribals dependent upon them. Biodiversity of the ecologically fragile regions like the north-east and western-ghats also need to be safeguarded to ensure their role as ecological buffers for the burgeoning human population. In most of the hilly regions – south Rajasthan, Western Ghats, Central India, Himalayas and Eastern India large tracts of forests lands are part of many local watersheds. Proper development and management of these common lands is critical to the success of a watershed as they act as reservoirs of water and are also often located along the watershed ridges.

9.3 Common property rights of the community over forest lands including the village forests need to be recognised, recorded in the record-of-rights and protected.

9.4 The role of Tribal Advisory Council (TAC) should be strengthened. Under article 238/2, the Governor can make regulations for the Scheduled Areas by prohibiting and restricting transfer of land by or among the members of Scheduled Tribes and regulate money lending. There is provision for TAC in Schedule V areas and the Governor is bound to consult them.

9.5 Minor cases filed against tribal communities under encroachment/ violations of Wildlife Act/ other forest offences etc. should be withdrawn.

9.6 Tribal communities who were earlier displaced because of national parks and wild life sanctuaries must be rehabilitated under the purview of FRA.
9.7 All primitive tribal groups must be exempted under FRA without their date of occupancy on a particular piece of land. Any land that has been claimed under FRA must not be identified/ utilized for Jatropha plantation.
9.8 All claims of non-tribal communities on the same piece of land must be taken to a fast-track court for timely settlement. All claims for common property resources should be brought under time bound action and resettlement should be provided on the basis of ‘Record of Rights.’ Forests should be recognised as Common Property Resources (especially protected forests and unclassified forests and rights and concessions must incorporate the needs of the community for non-timber forest produce)
9.9 All land regularized under FRA must not be alienated/ acquired and in case of any emergency acquisition, the same category of land must be provided.
9.10 The tribal communities who lived in Salwa Judum camps must be resettled in their occupied land irrespective of the cutoff date under FRA (2006).
9.11 No Special Economic Zone and/or Special Tourism Zone will be allowed on forest land and V-Scheduled Areas.
10. TRIBAL LAND ALIENATION
10.1 Consent of all the stakeholders should be considered before land is acquired. This is imperative for smooth implementation and also for getting the right kind of benefits to the people. Thus, Gram Panchayat should be consulted at the time of acquiring land.
10.2 In many instances unutilized land acquired for a public purpose is difficult to reclaim. There should be a speedy process to reclaim and take possession of the unutilized land. Moreover, used land, especially in case of coal and other mines should be reclaimed and acquired instead of acquiring agriculture land for public purpose.
10.3 These assessments should be thoroughly carried out involving the stakeholders before projects are executed. And based on these assessments future course of action should be decided. Social impact assessment is highly advisable to deal with compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement issues.

10.4 Land acquisition for industry or public purpose should be confined to the maximum extent to barren and uncultivable lands.

10.5 At this juncture of the growing economy better design of infrastructures should be promoted. There should be emphasis on approving and promoting multi-storey buildings that occupy less land space, especially for urban development.
10.6 Developers who acquire land under Land Acquisition Act or SEZ should be prevented from acquiring more land than required.
11. LAND ACQUISITION
11.1 The Central Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and other central and state acts dealing with land acquisition should be amended in line with true intent of the provisions of PESA. A clearer definition and guidelines for ‘public purpose’ should be formulated to help remove some of the arbitrariness present in the existing system of land acquisition. Besides, the lack of transparency in the process of land acquisition needs to be addressed. The definition of public purpose should take into account ecological considerations as well.
11.2 The common property resources (CPRs) including grazing land, village forest and water resources should not be acquired without providing alternative sources of equal or higher value to the community.
11.3 The Land Acquisition Act should be amended to incorporate Rehabilitation &Resettlement Act for all projects. Rehabilitation should be undertaken in such a manner that the displaced tribal persons have a clearly improved standard of living after resettlement. Their ecology, culture and ethos will have to be given due consideration in the resettlement plan.
11.4 Survey and settlement operations should be taken up in those areas where it has not been done so far to remove any confusion or uncertainty. Following the recommendation made by the Expert Group on Tribal Land Alienation, survey of the hill slopes up to 30 degrees should be mandatory in the states with Schedule areas and such lands should be settled in favour of tribals who do shifting cultivation and subsistence agriculture. This will not only confer land rights on the tribals occupying such lands, but also help improve the forest cover. The areas under shifting cultivation should be brought under tribal community management. The Government land encroached by poor tribal families should be settled in their favour. (This has already been covered under the Forest Rights Act, 2005)
11.5 Tribals who have been living within a reserve forest, sanctuaries, wild life sanctuaries, national parks, biosphere reserves for generation and cultivating agricultural land should be given permanent patta rights and should not be displaced. (May be better packages can be designed for rehabilitation)
11.6 The legal provisions prohibiting the alienation of tribal land in Schedule V areas and its restoration should be extended to the non-scheduled areas also. A cut off date should be prescribed while extending these provisions to the non-scheduled areas.
11.7 A senior competent authority should exercise judgment in sale of tribal lands and protect the interests of tribals. The State should promote the concept of a Land Bank wherein tribal land is purchased by the State and allotted to other deserving tribal families in the same area. (Ceiling Surpluses should be distributed on a priority basis. CPRs should not be distributed).
11.8 At present PESA is applicable only to the scheduled areas but a large part of the tribal population lives outside scheduled areas. Therefore, the provisions of PESA should be applicable mutatis mutandis to village/areas where there is a sizable tribal population or where majority of the population consists of scheduled tribes.
12. LANDS RIGHTS TO THE NOMADIC TRIBES
12.1 It is clearly recognised that the roving life style of the nomadic tribes is no longer sustainable. They should be settled in areas of their choice and given sustenance on Government land in a time bound manner. This might be framed with a ‘Minimum Land Holding Act’ for them.
12.2 All cases of encroachment and other minor offences against the rural poor should be withdrawn.
13. COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCES
13.1 A long-term perspective on CPRs should be evolved through developing land use plans of each village, State and the country. Common Property Resources should include cultivable wastes and fallows other than current, common pastures and grazing land, protected and unclassified forests, barren, uncultivable and other government wastelands that are being used for the common purposes. It should be left upon the States to decide the lands to be included under CPRs.

13.2 For proper management of CPR the role of user groups, the central and state governments. and community-based organisations, especially those working on it are critical. The roles of each of the institutions should be laid out properly outlining ownership, access and rights and benefits aspects.

13.3 There should be a provision for having at least some percentage of a total land in a village under CPLR. The rationality for capping should be decided by State governments.
13.4 Based on the criticality of CPRs, a complete ban on diversion should be approved unless their conversion is in the larger interest of all the users and ecology. The ban should be imposed in the capped CPLR area.
13.5 To identify and estimate the magnitude of CPRs in the country the National Sample Survey Organization should enumerate this in every round.
13.6 There should be disincentives against encroachments done by resource-rich farmers. At present the penalty paid by encroachers is paltry which hardly discourages them from encroaching.
13.7 It is high time to safeguard existing de jure CPRs. Funds should be made available and investment should be carried out for their development. To add, diversion of existing de jure CPRs should be banned.
13.8 To resolve disputes over CPRs should be resolved on priority and the central government should initiate fast track and time bound processes for resolving disputes over CPRs.
13.9 Building greater public awareness is the need of the hour. More importantly, people’s perspective on CPRs should be thoroughly understood and taken into consideration while designing public interventions.
13.10 The development model for CPR should be similar to the JFM model. The entire rights over the management and use of CPR should be assigned to its users.

13.11 The existing defunct state land use boards should be advised and provided guidance to make those effective.  They should be provided necessary resources and directions to develop land use plans of each village and thus state.

13.12 The common property land should not be redistributed as there are a lot of other categories (like barren and uncultivable lands) under which land is locked. Therefore a clear distinction needs to be made between CPRs and wastelands which might be as well be utilized for non-livelihood purposes like mining, quarrying and industry. The surplus land after being capped for the common purpose could be allotted to landless families or other marginalized groups.