Land reform is a state subject but a national priority that requires a national consensus.’ — Manmohan Singh, CII annual conference, April 18, 2006

Priority. Consensus. These two words have clearly eluded the subject of land reforms or else why, 59 years after Independence, do we still have antiquated laws on land ownership? Why is there a staggering number of land-related cases languishing in court? Why does almost every infrastructure project get delayed because of a land dispute? Why does a poor farmer have to pay Rs 500 from his pocket to get a certificate from the patwari/talati (local land officials) that he owns a piece of land so that he may avail of a loan?

And yet things could have been very different. On April 3, 1987, Manmohan Singh, then deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, wrote to Pune-based professor D C Wadhwa, an economist with the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, asking him if he would head a one-man committee on the status of record-of-rights in land.

Wadhwa submitted a preliminary study in 1989 but, 16 years later, there is neither a record of land nor of rights. It doesn’t appear to be on anybody’s priority list — even though last July Sonia Gandhi, as Chairperson of the National Advisory Council, wrote to the Prime Minister on this issue: ‘‘A very large percentage of the people in India live in the rural areas and derive livelihoods, wholly or partially, from land. The compilation and updation of land records, is, therefore, a particularly significant measure to instil a sense of security in the farming community and to encourage investments for higher land productivity, especially in the establishment of Clear Titles to Land.’’

... contd.