land reforms in andhra pradesh

Status of Land Reforms in Andhra Pradesh and the Need to Implement Radical Land Reforms
[A summary of the paper presented by K. Gopal Iyer in the Hyderabad convention on “Land Reforms and State Repression”]

1. Background: Tenancy Reforms
Telangana movement is the precursor to land reforms initiative in Andhra Pradesh. The Hyderabad Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act enacted in 1950 with its subsequent amendments resulted in the Conferment of Protection to nearly 6 lakh tenants with over 75 lakh acres in their possession. This constituted 33 percent of the total cultivated area. The Andhra Pradesh Tenancy Act, 1956 sought to give protection to certain categories of tenants in the Andhra Region from unjust evictions. However, it was preceded by large-scale eviction of tenants by the landlords. In the absence of militant peasant movement, the tenancy legislation in Andhra area had only a negative impact on tenants as the landowners resorted to large-scale evictions and leasing out lands only on oral basis.

1.1. Land Ceiling
The land ceiling which came into effect in June 1961 allowed a family to retain 180 to 360 acres wet land or 1080 to 2160 acres of dry land. It provided nothing about the large-scale benami transactions that had taken place prior to June 1961. High levels of ceiling exemptions were allowed in the case of plantations, orchards, specialized farms, sugarcane farms, religious and charitable trusts etc. There was no provision in the Act regarding the clandestine transfer of land in favour of other members of the family by way of gift, partition etc. The land leased out by the landowner was not taken into account in fixing the ceiling area. The impression given to the legislative assembly was that about 30 lakh acres constituting a little under 10 per cent of the total land would be available for redistribution. After a decade of implementation it was found that only 25584 persons had filed declarations and a total area of 4305.37 acres in the Andhra region and 29995.27 acres of land in the Telangana regions had been declared surplus.

As a corrective the Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act of 1973 was enforced on 1st January 1975. The unit of application of ceiling was not more than five members. ‘Family’ as defined in the Act consists of an individual, his spouse, their unmarried sons and unmarried minor daughters, major sons and daughters, married and widowed daughters, mother, father, brothers and sisters are not included in the family unit. The ceiling limit ranged from 10 to 54 acres depending upon the class and category of land. Exceptions were made to land held by the government, religious, educational and charitable trusts, land devoted to plantations etc. At the time of introduction of the Bill in the Assembly Government thought that approximately 20 lakh acres of land would become surplus. On 31st March 2004, the distribution of Ceiling Surplus Land in Andhra Pradesh was as follows:

(Area in acres)
1 Area Declared Surplus 799663
2 Area Taken Possession 641655
3 Area Distributed 582319
4 Area declaredsurplus but not distributed 207722
5 Area involved in Litigation 147450
Litigation in Revenue Courts 55289
High Court 78047
Supreme Court 14113
(Source: Annual Report, 2004-2005, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, Pages 207-208)




The total number of beneficiaries was 540344. Much of the land distributed was dry and of inferior quality. This is a clear indication of the ineffective implementation of the land ceiling legislation in Andhra Pradesh.

1.2 Government Land
However, the distribution of government land (commonly known as Banjar land) constituted an important component of the land reform programme in Andhra Pradesh. As on March 2004, the distribution of Government Wastelands in Andhra Pradesh was 42.02 lakh acres which constituted the highest area to be distributed by any other state in the country. (Annual Report 2004-2005, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, page 211). There are several constraints in the implementation in the State of Andhra Pradesh in the distribution of Government land. In reality a large part of the government land, particularly the better cultivable lands, have been encroached by big landowners. The process of evicting them from their illegal occupation and allotting the land to the landless has proved to be a formidable task. Another problem in implementation is ensuring physical possession of the allotted land as the landlords implicate the poor people in litigation or use coercive methods to prevent the allottees from cultivating the land. There are also cases of land assignment in Andhra Pradesh pending for two or three decades.

1.3. Tribal Land
Andhra Pradesh has a very long record of legislation for the protection of Tribal Land. There are large tracts of tribal lands which are still under the occupation of the non-tribals. For example, as on March 2004 the status on alienation and Restoration of Tribal Lands in Andhra Pradesh are as follows:

1 No. of cases filed in the Court 65875

2 Area 287776 (acres)

3 Cases disposed of by the court 58212

4 Area 256452 (acres)

5 Cases rejected 31737

6 Area involved 150227 (acres)

7 Cases decided in favour of tribals 26475

8 Area 106225 (acres)

9 Cases in which land was restored to tribals 23383

10 Area 94312 (acre)

(Source: Annual Report, 2004-2005, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India Page 213).

Thus only one-third of the total area alienated has been restored to them. Besides, they are subjected to displacement from thousands of acres due to various development projects and evictions by forest department on the plea of encroachment of forestland. The Samta Judgement and the Panchayat Extension Act of 1996 are silver linings in this respect which should be utilized by the peasant organizations in protecting the land rights of the tribals.

1.4 Impact of LPG
One of the major threats being posed to the land reforms programme is the adverse impact of Globalisation, Liberalization and Privatization under the pretext of encouraging Aqua culture. The Andhra Pradesh Government, by a mere executive order Go/Ms/No. 27 of January 11, 1994 (Revenue Department), granted exemptions U/S 18/2 of Andhra Pradesh Land Reforms Act, 1973 for prawn/pisiculture project upto 200 hectares (500 acres). The area under prawn farms in Andhra Pradesh increased from 19500 Ha in 1993-94 to 66290 ha in 1997-98. The Supreme Court through its directives in 1991 banned the conversion of agricultural land and brackish water poramboke lands into aquaculture. In spite of this, large area of agricultural lands have been converted to aquaculture and Poramboke Brackish Water lands have been encroached by big prawn farmers. Another point is that 92% of the total area under prawn farm in Andhra Pradesh is located within CRS which is prohibited. Besides, the extent of agricultural land converted into aquaculture until 1999 was 31081.74 Ha and 25188-19 ha of poramboke brackish water lands are encroached. Andhra Pradesh agriculture is virtually in an explosive situation and in a seething cauldron.

2. Measures for Radical Land Reforms
In view of this, certain radical land reforms measures are inevitable. There are still enough scope for radical land reforms as indicated below:

2.1 Land ceilings
1. All the exemptions from land ceiling legislations e.g. for temple lands, Charitable Trusts, Plantations etc. should be immediately withdrawn. This would unable 6 to 7 lakh acres of surplus lands to be distributed among landless agricultural labourers.

2. The cases under litigation in Land ceiling should be decided within a year and the lands involving 1.4 lakh acres should be distributed among landless.

3. ‘Absentee Landlordism’ is prevalent on a considerable scale in Coastal Andhra and Telangana Region which should be strictly discouraged by enforcing rigorous definition of ‘Personal Cultivation’ on the pattern of West Bengal Land Ceiling Legislation. This would bring more than 5 lakh acres under ceiling net in Andhra Pradesh.

2.2 Tenancy Reforms
4. The Coastal Andhra has increasing area under tenancy. The latest research studies indicate that the informal/concealed tenancy in the Coastal Andhra ranges from 15% to 30% of the total owned area.

5. It is suggested that Andhra Pradesh Tenancy Reforms Legislation should be amended to confer proprietary rights to all tenants/sharecroppers who are cultivating the lands during last three years on the pattern of Assam. Madhya Pradesh legislation even prescribes proprietary rights to tenants cultivating for past one year as well.

6. The revenue officials at the village level should record the names of actual cultivators in the village revenue records each year to facilitate the tenancy records and conferment of proprietary rights.

2.3 Government Land
7. The Encroachment of Government lands done by landowners should be evicted within six months and such lands should be distributed to landless labourers.

8. A through survey should be conducted of available government lands for distribution to landless labourers.

9. As per Government of Andhra Pradesh Policy Note on the Assignment of Government Lands the Andhra Pradesh Government has undertaken a crash Programme of assignment of lands to tribals in eight districts of Adilabad, Khamman, East Godavari, Warangal, West Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram, and Srikakulam. An estimated 12,80,968.22 acres of banjar land is available in the tribal areas of the state. So far area of 5,57,768.87 acres have been surveyed and balance 7,23,199.35 acres are yet to be surveyed. This survey work must be undertaken on a priority basis to be completed within one year for distribution to tribals.

2.4 Reversing the Impact of Globalisation, Liberalization and Privatization
10. The Government of Andhra Pradesh should immediately withdraw the Executive order GV/MS/ Ho. 27 of 11th January 1994 with which the exemptions from land ceiling upto 500 acres have been permitted for Aqua Farms.

11. In Future also the Land ceiling limit as contained in Land Ceiling Act 1973 should continue and exemptions should be withdrawn.

12. The Brackish Water Poramboke land should be distributed to agriculture labour and fishermen.

13. The brackish water Poramboke lands encroached by prawn farmers should be retrieved and distributed to Agriculture Labour and Fishermen

14. The Agriculture land converted to Aquaculture should be taken over by Government and distributed to landless.

15. The Contract Farming and Corporate Farming should be completely discouraged.