By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala Friday came out with a draft ‘land policy’ to ensure that the Kerala Land Reforms (KLR) Act is not violated.
State revenue minister K.P. Rajendran released the draft of the new policy here to reporters. The KLR Act, which came into effect on Jan 1, 1970, put a cap on the area of land individuals and joint families could own.
He said in the next two months the draft policy will be discussed across the state and would be placed before the state assembly towards the end of the forthcoming budget session.
The draft policy provisions aim to conserve land and to curb illegal land deals.The policy, the first of its kind in the state, moots a mechanism to monitor land transactions across the state.
The Kerala Land Reforms (KLR) Act prevents individuals from owning, holding or possessing land in excess of ceiling area. Leasing of land to other individuals or a commercial company is prohibited under the Act.
The result of the land ceiling Act was to redistribute land among all agricultural labourers and dwellers, but this did not happen over the years. The new policy aims to make it a reality.
“By now, we have taken possession of 18,000 acres of land (surplus). We have set up a ‘land bank’ where the land will be placed. Soon, we will distribute land to the landless,” Rajendran said.
“All the land that we recover will be used for three purposes. The priority would be to see that all landless are given land, then we will use it for government needs, and lastly, the land that we acquire in cities will be used to generate revenue for the state,” Rajendran said.
One of the main reasons the state government says it could not implement this earlier was the huge real estate boom. Real estate prices in the state have been soaring dramatically in the last five years.