States against UPA land for homeless plan

The ambitious plan of the UPA government ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to distribute land to homeless appears to have been stonewalled by state governments, who have disfavoured setting ceiling limit on land holding. The UPA’s legislation in making “Right to Homestead Bill, 2013” could remain on paper only with states refusing to cooperate with the Centre on the issue. After the pact with P.V. Rajgopal of the Ekta Parishad in Agra, where over one lakh homeless people had gathered in a bid to march to New Delhi, the Centre had agreed to issue advisories to state governments asking them to fix land ceiling and distribute the surplus land to the poor. “Most of the states have stated that they do not favour any land ceiling. The Centre cannot do much, as land is a state subject. We can only issue advisories,” said a senior official. Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh had signed a pact with Ekta Parishad as a representative of the Centre in Agra. The Centre had agreed to the demand of the Ekta Parishad to ask state governments to fix their respective land ceiling and draft the Right to Homestead Bill. The legislative proposal is reportedly at the stage of interministerial consultation. “There are strong lobbies led by political leaders who do not want state governments to fix land ceiling at all,” said a senior official, explaining the stand of the state governments. The official added that most of the state governments barring a few like West Bengal have responded to the advisories issued to them.