The New Nation - Internet Edition

Disputes and litigation over land ownership are widespread in the country. Such disputes lead even to bloody clashes. Most quarrels in the villages arise out of land disputes. In some cases, people in the rural areas having both ill-gotten wealth and muscle power grab landed property belonging to poor people or absentee landowners. They do the crime through forged settlement records in connivance with a section of corrupt field level-land officials. Faults in the land record system make loopholes for manipulation of land records. Most landowners do not have clear idea about the complex land record system. The forgers take advantage of the ignorance and helplessness of poor people and absent landowners. They also make use of irregularities in the distribution of parental properties.

The impact of such fraud on socio-economic structure in the rural areas is grave. Genuine owners of land are deprived of their legitimate rights. The poor and weak sections suffer the most. Losing whatever small patches of land they have, those people slide deeper into poverty. This process of grabbing land pushes the likely achievement of poverty reduction goal further back. It quickens concentration of land in the hands of the non-tiller farmers and leads to inefficient use of land productivity.

The authorities concerned should make concerted efforts to bring about a radical change in the land record system to check pauperisation and social disintegration. Necessary amendments to land laws are needed to do away with the loopholes so that forgery of settlement records is stopped. Fragmentation of land ownership is one of the causes of land disputes. Is it impossible to evolve some methods of discouraging fragmentation of land? Experiences of people in developed countries may be of help.