Govt considering separate land law for hills: CM
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 25 2020: The State Government has been considering a separate land law for the hill districts, stated Chief Minister N Biren on the floor of the Manipur Legislative Assembly today.

The State Assembly today cleared six demands for grants amounting to Rs 2569.90 crore and the demands were for Land Revenue, Stamps & Registration & District Administration, Finance, Youth Affairs & Sports, Sales Tax, Other Taxes/Duties on Commodities & Services and State Academy of Training.

Speaking in the course of discussing the demands, Chief Minister N Biren said that the Government has started consulting hill leaders to enact a separate land law for the hill districts which would not overlap with the Manipur Land Revenue & Land Reforms (MLR&LR) Act , 1960 .

Map of Districts in Manipur

The Government's initiative is aimed at addressing land disputes and also to bring speedy development in the hill areas, he said.

If the natural gift of land resources is not utilised with far-sightedness, a serious issue may emerge after one or two decade(s), Biren said.

Biren said that stringent action must be initiated under the Manipur Conservation of Paddy Land & Wetland Act 2014 .

Structures built on paddy fields and wetlands after 2014 must be demolished with the exception of those belonging to those families who do not have any alternative homestead but they too would be required to pay certain fee as per the Act.

Certain penalty/fee would be imposed against structures built on paddy fields and wetlands before 2014 too.

Meanwhile, the Government has been planning to hire a consultancy firm for preparing a comprehensive land use policy for Imphal city, greater Imphal and district headquarters, Biren said.

He said that the State Government has started focusing on vertical expansion of Government buildings in Imphal city.

Clarifying to certain points raised by Kh Joykisan while the demand for grant pertaining to Finance was discussed, Biren said that there is no question of the Finance Department withholding Cheque Drawal Authority (CDA), Expenditure Sanction (ES) and Encashment Permission (EP).

During 2018-19, CDA of Rs 1350 crore, ES of Rs 4977 crore and EP of Rs 3694 crore were released, Biren said.

In 2019-20, CDA of Rs 538 crore, ES of 3224 crore and EP of Rs 2503 crore were released and there are some more amounts which are yet to be released in the forms of CDA, ES and EP, said the Chief Minister who also holds the Finance portfolio.

Responding to a query raised by K Meghachandra, Biren said that the State's unsound financial condition has been there since two decades back.

Details of the State's financial situation were tabled in the House at the time of tabling budget estimates for 2020-21 and it was admitted that it was a deficit budget, Biren said.

"Apart from sending a written appeal to the Union Finance Minister to waive off the State's debt, I personally talked with the Union Finance Minister", he said and added that the Government would make its best efforts to produce a white paper on the State's financial situation within one month after the ongoing Assembly session is over.

Meanwhile, several measures have been initiated to improve the State's financial condition and certain restrictions have been imposed in depositing funds against Government account 8449.Biren clarified that there is no question of violation of the General Financial Rules 2017 by the Finance Department.

Responding to another query raised by Kh Joykisan while the demand for grant pertaining to State Excise was discussed, Biren said that there are cases of the Excise working together with police and NGOs.

At present, the total staff strength of Excise is 200 and it has six vehicles.

Nonetheless, the Government has been working to strengthen the manpower as well as equipment, Biren said.

The State Excise collected revenues of Rs 38.73 lakh, 44.97 lakh and 43 lakh during 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively.

While discussing the demand for grant pertaining to his department, Revenue Minister Karam Shyam said that there is a District Boundary Commission but it has not been functioning since the creation of seven new districts which give birth to a number of land disputes.

There will be disputes between one village and another in the hill areas as these areas have not been surveyed, Shyam said.

Informing that 90 per cent of Jiribam district has been surveyed, the Revenue Minister said that people residing within revenue districts should not pay hills house tax.

As such, collection of hills house tax has been stopped at 10 different places of Jiribam district.

According to the Manipur Conservation of Paddy Land & Wetland Act, construction of any type of structure on paddy fields and wetlands except dwelling houses and public utilities is prohibited, Shyam said.

As per the Act, 0.10 acre (urban) and 0.20 acre (rural) of paddy lands or wetlands can be converted into homestead land.

It is also true several structures have been built on paddy fields and wetlands after 2014, admitted the Revenue Minister.

The Government has been considering whether these structures should be demolished or given a one-time relaxation, he said.

While discussing the demand for grant pertaining to YAS, Letpao Haokip appealed to all concerned not to bring in politics in sports, education and health.

He also appealed to do away with the culture of bifurcation of sports associations.

The system of giving incentive to outstanding sports persons and reservation of 10 per cent seats for sports persons during recruitment in Government departments and promotion is still in force, he said.

However, this system is limited to only those sports persons who bring laurels in national and international championships, Letpao added.

Even though the State's performance in the Khello India held recently at Guwahati was not up to the expectation, the State is still a dominant force in sports in the whole country, he claimed.

MLAs K Ranjit, Dr Chaltonlien Amo, D Korungthang, Abdul Nasir, RK Imo, K Meghachandra and Surjakumar Okram took part in discussing the demands for grants.