Disposal of surplus rural evacuee agricultural lands on the basis of possession

4/9/1974

PUNJAB GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF REHABILITATION

To

1.         All Tehsildars ( Sales) in the State.

2.         Naib Tehsildars ( Sales ), Sangrur & Patiala.

No.2(505)G-5/20075-20085/Reh, dated, Jullundur, the 4th Sept. 1974.

Sub:  Disposal of surplus rural evacuee agricultural lands on the basis of Possession to SC/ Rai Sikhs/Landless Agriculturists/Workers  - Rabi 1972

Memorandum

The latest policy of Government with regard to the disposal of surplus rural evacuee agricultural lands has been announced vide Press Note No. ( 1) dated September 4, 1974, copy sent to you separately under Endst. No. 2(505)G-5/20033-20043, dated September 4, 1974. While detailed instructions for the disposal of the land by restricted auction will be issued separately, in due course, the following instructions are issued for the disposal of the land by transfer on the basis of possession to the members of Scheduled Castes, Rai Sikhs, landless agriculturists and agricultural workers, from whom applications have been invited by September 30, 1974, vide Press Note No.(2), also dated September 4,1974, copy endorsed to you under the same number and date, as mentioned above.

(1)        (a)        Land occupied by members of Scheduled Castes, Rai Sikhs should be transferred to them upto the limit of 10 ordinary acres each, inclusive of occupants own holding, if any;

(b)        Similarly land occupied by landless agriculturists and agricultural workers, should also be transferred to them upto the limit of 10 ordinary acres ;Subject to the conditions and on the terms laid down hereinafter:

Note:    Please note the distinction between the two categories of occupants mentioned above; Those at ( a) may not necessarily be landless, but they must be owning land less than 10 ordinary acres, whereas those at (b) must not be owning any agricultural land anywhere in India.

(2)        An occupant, eligible for the purpose of transfer of the land occupied by him, shall be a person :­

(a)        (i)         who is a member of the Scheduled Castes or is a Rai Sikh and does not own any agricultural land or if he owns any, his ownership is less than 10 ordinary acres ;

(ii)        Who is landless agriculturist or agricultural workers in irrespective of caste or community; ­

(b)        Who is head of his family.

(c)        Who has applied for the transfer of the land occupied by him on or before the prescribed date and his application has reached the office of the Tehsildar(S) or Naib Tehsildar (S) (incharge sub Unity) by the said date and not after it, by post or otherwise.

(d)        Who is a self tiller and is in cultivating possession of the land applied for from  'Rabi' 1972 and his possession as such is determined to be continuous from the said crop, as per entries in the Khasra Girdawaris.

(e)        Who is legal heir of an occupant who has died after making an application by the stipulated date.

(3)        No minor shall be eligible for the transfer of the land. This condition shall not be applicable to an eligible occupant as defined in sub para ( e) of para 2 above.

(4)        A lady occupant whose husband is alive" shall not be eligible for the transfer of the land.

Note:   The cases of widow occupants, who are getting the land in their possession cultivated through their sons or servants etc. Or the lady occupants whose husbands are disabled or incapacitated shall not be rejected by the   Tehsildar (S)/Naib Tehsildar (S), but forwarded to Government through the settlement officer concerned, who shall make his recommendations after careful. each case and satisfying himself of the correct position and circumstances.

(5)        "Cultivating Possession" shall be determined strictly on the basis of the entries in the Khasra Girdawaris. The cases of doubtful and tampered with entries of Khasra Girdawaris shall be rejected. Similarly, the cases of corrected Khasra Girdawaris, in which corrections have been secured after August 21, 1974, shall be rejected.

Note:     There may be some cases in which Khasra Girdawari entries have been tampered with malafide to impair the interest of an otherwise eligible occupant. Such cases should not be rejected but referred to Settlement Officer who may decided the case, after holding such enquiry as is deemed proper.

( 6)       A 'head of the family' should be living separately from his parents, may be in one and the same house and should be paying Chulla Tax & Chowkidara.

(7)        (i)         An occupant's "own holding" shall include the land owned by him, his wife and his dependent children, but shall not include his own, wife's or his dependent children share in the holding of his living father or relation to which anyone of them is entitled to succeed, after the death of the former, as his/her legal heir or reversioner .

(ii)        Nazool or inferior evacuee agricultural land, purchased from the Revenue Department or any other land purchased from any other source on installment basis or otherwise, by an eligible occupant, his wife or dependent children shall form part of his holding, even if it has not been fully paid for.

(iii)       In the case of 2 (e) above, the legal heir's or heirs' holding shall have the same as that of the occupant's holding. This holding shall be taken into account, while determining his/other eligibility for the transfer of surplus evacuee land on the basis of possession of his/their deceased father or ancestor, provided that in the event of plurality of heirs of a deceased occupant, no individual heir shall be entitled to the transfer of surplus rural evacuee agricultural land exceeding his proportionate share in the land occupied by the deceased occupant.

(iv)       Ordinarily the determining date for an occupant's holding shall be the date on which his application for transfer of surplus rural evacuee agricultural land is decided by the Tehsildar (Sales)/Naib Tehsildar (Sales). But, a part or whole of the holding if transferred by an occupant, his wife or his dependent children to anyone in any manner or acquired by him, his wife or his dependent children from, any source, on or after August 21, 1974, and before the date of decision of his application by the Tehsildar (Sales)/ Naib Tehsildar (Sales) shall be deemed to be a part or whole of his holding.

(8)        (i)         The price of the land transferred in each case shall be determined at the following rates, after converting the ordinary acres so transferred into standard acres at the rates already prescribed for each kind of soil.

(a)        Rs. 500/-per standard acre from the Scheduled Castes transferees;

(b)        Rs. 1000/-per standard acre from the transferees other than the members of Scheduled Castes.

            (ii)        The price of land should be recovered in 5 equated annual instalments with interest at the rate of 7 % per annum, the first installment being payable at the time of transfer.

(9)        In the event of default on the part of a transfer, in the payment of any installment/balance money in time, the land transferred to him shall be resumed and the amount resumed and the amount paid by him forfeited.

(10)      The occupant shall be liable to make payment, in lump sum, of arrears of rent/lease money of the land, under unauthorized occupation, alongwith the first installment payable at the time of transfer. This shall however, not include recovery of other dues, including 'Taccavis'

Note: These arrears upto Kharif 1971 shall be paid to the Tehsildar (S) (Mahal) concerned and a clearance certificate produced by an applicant at the time of process of his application by the Tehsildar (S)/Naib Tehsildar (S).

(11)      Of late, it had come to the notice of Government that certain individuals have unauthorisedly occupied vast areas of surplus rural evacuees agricultural land and have established farms thereon and are cultivating the same themselves, but in the revenue record including Khasra Girdawaris, cultivation is shown in the names of other persons, who are either fake or if genuine are not cultivating the land themselves. It is possible that in order to grab this land, applications for transfer may also be made by such persons, as are not cultivating the land themselves at the instance of the individuals who have set up these farms etc., on the ground that their names appear in the Khasra Girdawaris. In such cases, the other conditions remaining the same, the following additional determining factors should be taken into consideration :

(a)        Whether a prospective transferee is resident of the village for the last 3 years; and

(b)        Whether his name is included in the Voters List of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

(12)      An occupant allottee or occupant vendee of any allotted area, cancelled on the, grounds of fraud misrepresentation of facts or otherwise, shall not be entitled to purchase the land on the basis of possession even if, by virtue of that cancellation. he has been rendered landless or his holding has been reduced to less than 10 ordinary acres,

(13)      Any member of the Scheduled Castes or Rai Sikh who has already purchased surplus rural evacuee agricultural land on the basis of possession or in restricted auction and has disposed of the same during the past three years and as such, has become totally landless or owns land less than 10 ordinary acres, shall not be permitted to purchase surplus rural evacuees agricultural land under the present scheme, although he may be occupying such land and his cultivating possession is established to be continuous from 'Rabi' 1972 onwards,

(14)      (i)         Two different application forms printed in Gurmukhi script ( white for members of the Scheduled Castes and Rai Sikhs and Pink for the landless agriculturists and agricultural workers) duly numbered shall be supplied to you for distribution free of cost, amongst the members of the Scheduled Castes, Rai Sikhs, landless agriculturists and agricultural workers. A proper account of these forms should be kept and the unused forms should be returned to this office after the expiry of the prescribed date for the receipt of applications,

(ii)        All applications received in a Sale Unit shall be entered in a chronological order daily in a separate register duly page marked and bearing certificate of the Tehsildar (Sales) or the Naib Tehsildar (S) incharge of the Sale Unit/Sub-Unit regarding the total number of the pages in the register.

1. On receipt of an application whether by post or by hand, the official receiving the application will give on top of the application, its receipt number and the date on which received and the same shall be initialled by the Tehsildar (Sales)/Naib Tehsildar (Sales) concerned,
2. At the end of each working day or on the morning of the next working day, the applications duly receipted will be sorted out Tehsilwise and passed on to the Kanungo (S) concerned on receipt of which he will make a preliminary scrutiny so as to determine, whether or not, all documents as prescribed in para 2 of the Press Note No, (2) have been appended.
3. The application received from non-eligible persons shall be kept in a separate folder and entered in a register, while the applications received from eligible persons, shall be sorted out Village wise and entered in a register to be maintained in order of Had Bast Number, by the Kanungo ( S) concerned, in the following form :

                        Name of the Village                       Had Bast No.

SN of the          Receipt No.the     Name of the           Whether SC(Scheduled Caste)                

Application.    Application           Applicant                     RS(Rai Sikhs ), LA ( Landless              

                                                                        Agriculturist),LAW(Landless    

                                                                          Agricultural Workers )                          

(vi)       An incomplete application shall be marked as such with red Pencil and a 'Robkar' issued to the applicant by the Kanungo ( S) concerned, asking him to complete the same" within a week. The ' Robkar ' should specifically point out the omissions or documents to be supplied. In the application. in response to the above 'Robkar' he should be asked to supply the missing documents or details, at the time of the processing of the applications by the Tehsildar (Sales)/ Naib Tehsildar (Sales), failing which his application shall be liable to be rejected.

(vii)      (i) All applications received upto the last date shall be entered in the main register. The Tehsildar(S)/Naib Tehsildar(S) incharge of the Unit, shall then record a certificate at the end indicating the total number of applications received within time.

(ii) The applications received after the prescribed date shall be entered in the  main register after the Tehsildar(Sales)/Naib Tehsildar(Sale) has recorded the certificate prescribed in sub-para (i) above and shall submit the same to the Deputy Secretary (Reh) for orders.

1. These applications shall be processed and disposed of in 'Jalse-I-Am' by the Tehsildar(s) Naib Tehsildar(S), in the Villages" in which the land applied for is situate, in presence of the village Patwari, Sarpanch, Lambardar and members of Panchayat, whose statements should be recorded with regard to the eligibility of an applicant. After verification of the facts stated by an applicant and comparison of the certified copies of the Khasra girdawaris" tendered by the latter" with the original Khasra Girdawaris, the Tehsildar(S) or the Naib Tehsildar (S)" if satisfied of his eligibility shall record a brief order, allowing the transfer of the land to the extent admissible, subject to approval by the Settlement Officer concerned. The Officer passing the order should invariable certify :

1. that he has compared the copy of the Khasra Girdawari tendered by an applicant or placed on the file, with the original one and has found it correct.
2. that the applicant is member of the Scheduled Castes/a Rai Sikhs/a landless agriculturist/a landless agricultural worker and is head of his family, and
3. that the applicant, his wife, and his dependent children own        _______ordinary acres of land in village----------- Tehsil__--------- District----------        and  is, therefore, entitled to the transfer of only ordinary  acres of surplus rural evacuee agricultural land equivalent to--------- standard   acres  at Rs.---------            at  the   rate      of Rs.500/1000 per standard acre.

(ix)       Each file shall then be submitted to the Settlement Officer concerned for approval of the transfer after the expiry of 15 days.

A Settlement Officer will make an adhoc check on the spot of25% of the accepted cases vis-a-vis the original revenue record, so as to ensure that the certificates at Sr. No. viii ( a) and ( c ) above have been correctly recorded by the Tesildar( S )/Naib Tehsildar( S ) allowing the transfer. 5 % of these cases will be checked by the Deputy Secretary (Reh).

(15)      You should ensure that each case is examined by you minutely and that no deliberate or accidental slip is allowed to creep in. In the event of any default or lapse, detected subsequently, severe disciplinary action will be taken against the Tehsildar(Sale)/ Naib Tehsildar(Sale), allowing the transfer.

(16)      The transfer of the land will be under the Disposal of rural Package Deal Properties Rules of 1962. As such, the provisions thereof with regard to appeals, revisions etc. Shall apply. All orders should be passed by the Tehsildars(Sales)/Naib Tehsildars (Sale) as such and not in their capacity as Managing Officers.

(17)       The work of disposal of the applications should be taken in hand with effect from October I, 1974 and finalized by November 15, 1974 positively, In order to accomplish the work within the stipulated period, the total number of eligible applications received, should be distributed over the total number of working days and disposed of accordingly, under all circumstances, In case to cope with the work holidays have also to be utilized, the Tehsildars(Sales)/Naib Tehsildars(Sale) and the other ancillary staff, should not shrink doing so.

(18)       The progress of disposal should be submitted by each Sale Unit in the prescribed form, appended herewith to the undersigned, at the end of each week.

(19)      The receipt of this communication should be acknowledged.

( S R Bunger )

Deputy Secretary to Govt.. Punjab

Rehabilitation Department