M A I N   N E W S

SC verdict to seal fate of Punjab, Haryana farmers in Gujarat
Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, August 2
The Gujarat Government and farmers from Punjab and Haryana settled in the border district of Kutch are keeping their fingers crossed waiting for the Supreme Court verdict on the state government’s move to oust “non-Gujarati farmers” from the state.

The state government has moved the SC seeking stay on the Gujarat High Court order of the last year in favour of re-settled farmers from Punjab and Haryana after the Kutch District Collector issued them “eviction notice” and “sealed” a few land holdings around three years back.

The shocked farmers made several representations before CM Narendra Modi and the present Kutch Collector Harshad Patel for rescinding the eviction notices, but to no avail so far. “I know you have done wonders in farming in the once-barren land of Kutch and I will be happy if you are given the land rights by the Supreme Court,” Modi has reportedly told the delegations of Punjab-Haryana farmers in Kutch.

“My hands are tied and I can do nothing unless orders come from above,” Patel has taken the stand. Both Modi and Patel have advised the shocked farmers to wait for the Supreme Court order on the issue.

A delegation of farmers, however, has represented before Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who in turn has promised to take up the issue with his Gujarat counterpart. But it is unlikely to solve the problem till the apex court decided the issue, or Modi is prepared to withdraw eviction notices and thereby violate the state revenue act.

Under the Gujarat Revenue Act, amended from the Bombay Revenue Act when Gujarat was part of the erstwhile Bombay state before 1960, no one other than a person registered as a “bonafide farmer” in the state or holding ancestral landed property in the state could purchase agricultural land in Gujarat. A person holding agricultural land in any other state was not entitled to purchase agricultural land in Gujarat under the state revenue act.

It was the greed of some local politicians in Kutch that they decided to cajole a former district collector to invoke the clause in the revenue act that was lying dormant for years because the prices of the land under the possession of the Punjab-Haryana farmers have gone into millions.

Three years ago, the then District Collector set up a committee of local revenue officials to identify “non-Gujarati farmers”, mostly the farmers from Punjab and Haryana, and later issued them notices claiming since they were not “local farmers”, they could not hold land in Gujarat.

The Collector did not stop at issuing notices, but also “sealed” some land holdings, disallowing land owners from seeking bank loans and other facilities required for farming. The move had the desired result, causing flutter among resettled farmers. Some of them went for distress selling of their landed property in Kutch and returned to their parent state. 

The tangle

* Ex-servicemen, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, were settled in the border district of Kutch around 40 years ago

* The twin objectives were to ensure security on the border and make barren land of the area cultivable

* Around three years ago, the then District Collector invoked a clause of the Gujarat Revenue Act that said only a “bonafide farmer” of Gujarat can purchase agricultural land in the state

* After the Gujarat High Court ruled in favour of re-settled farmers from Punjab and Haryana last year, the state government moved the apex court for stay

* Now, both the Gujarat Government and farmers from Punjab and Haryana are keeping their fingers crossed, waiting for the Supreme Court verdict in the case