Mutation of Land Records Suspended in Jiwti Block
Adivasis and Farmers Pay the Price
In the last two years the process of mutation and updating of revenue records have stopped entirely in Jiwati block leading to difficulties for Adivasis and farmers in the area. Jiwti is the only block out of fifteen blocks of Chandrapur district in which land records have not yet be computerised. According to the revenue authorities, the work of computerisation of land records is lagging behind because there are discrepancies in the records which are yet to be sorted out.
Some of these discrepancies came before the Hon’ble High Court Nagpur during the Ulhas Bommewar Case – a writ petition bearing no. 3669/2009. In the said case the Hon’ble Court directed the Chandrapur district administration to mark out forest lands, revenue lands and private lands in different colours on a map. While carrying out this exercise there were disputes between the forest and revenue departments regarding lands in Jiwti Block which historically had been part of the Hyderabad Nizam’s Estate. All the disputed lands were deemed by the Hon’ble Court to be forest lands which means that almost entire Jiwti Block comprising of 83 villages and home to Adivasis like Gond, Pardhan and PVTG Kolam is deemed to be forest even though there are revenue villages, agricultural lands and industrial activities being carried out. The land records cannot be computerised as long as the discrepancies such as these remain. On the other hand manual mutations have also stopped.
In the last two years manual (hand written) mutations have been disallowed by the state government because of which no new mutations are being made in Jiwti since then. This has grave implications for the Adivasis who procured individual forest rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 but whose names have not yet been entered in the 7/12 record of rights. One of the main problems is that without 7/12 Adivasis are finding it difficult to access crop loans. Last year many Kolam Adivasis from Bhuri Yesapur, Tatakohad, Singarpathar etc agitated before the Vidarbha Konkan Grameen Bank for crop loans which was denied to them primarily because of lack of 7/12. Many farmers are unable to access government schemes for farmers because of problems in mutations.
Mr. Chide the officiating Tehsildar, Jiwati informed Vidarbha Gazette that the proposal seeking permission for mutations has been forwarded by the District Collector’s office to the office of Settlement Commissioner, Pune, but no reply has come in yet. He also said that there have been several meetings regarding distribution of crop loans but some banks are intransigent and not willing to accept the letters given by the revenue authorities.
As this year’s farming season draws closer, the farmers are tense whether they will get the crop loan or lose out like previous years.
