Odisha Govt To Bring Land Leasing Act This Monsoon Session

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government on Friday said it would bring a Land Leasing Act to safeguard the interest of sharecroppers in the state.

“The draft of the bill has been finalized. It has been sent to the Law Department. Once Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik approves it, the bill will be placed in Cabinet,” said Revenue Minister Bijayshree Routray.

He said the government expects to table the bill in the ensuing monsoon session of Assembly.

“Under the proposed Act, sharecroppers will get input subsidy, insurance and relief if they face crop loss,” Routray.

It was decided in the inter-ministerial panel meeting held on Friday.

In order to protect the rights of the land owner, the Revenue Minister said, a tripartite agreement would be signed by the landowner, sharecropper and local revenue inspector to lease out the land to the sharecropper.

The land leasing agreement would be signed for minimum one year or maximum ten years, he added.

Sources said that while the sharecropper would bear all investment cost for the cultivation of crops on the leased land, it would provide 1/3 of the production to the landowner.

However, in the case of natural calamities, the sharecropper would get all benefits to be provided by the state government including subsidies.

The act would enable that terms and conditions of the lease would be determined mutually by the landowner and the tenant (sharecropper) without any fear on the part of the landowner of losing land right.