New amendment in Goa Tenancy Agriculture Act enables govt to acquire fallow land for projects
In the past, strict regulations made it difficult for the government to acquire agricultural tenancy land for public projects. However, a recent amendment to Section 18K of the Goa Tenancy Agricultural Act, passed during the last Assembly session, now allows the government to acquire fallow tenancy land for projects such as infrastructure development for schools, panchayat offices, and other government buildings.
The Wadi-Talaulim Panchayat has become the first to take advantage of this new amendment. They have acquired 7,000 square metres of agricultural tenancy land to build a new panchayat office that will have three floors.
During an event for distributing plant saplings to farmers in Wadi Talaulim panchayat, Power Minister Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar discussed the importance of this amendment. He highlighted that two local landowners, Putu Naik and Ramanath Sawant, have generously provided their fallow paddy land for the construction of the panchayat office.
Dhavalikar emphasized that the government had faced significant challenges in acquiring tenancy land for development projects due to the strict regulations of the previous law. The recent amendment now allows the government to propose projects on unused tenancy land that has been fallow for 25 years, thereby facilitating the availability of land for crucial infrastructure projects while also benefiting both tenants and landlords. “This will open up opportunities for developing school facilities in every village,” he stated, mentioning that it took him a year of hard work to bring about this change.
The amendment is intended to alleviate the shortage of land for government projects in rural areas by converting some fallow paddy land into non-agricultural (NA) land for public use. Despite the government’s assurances, there are some farmers and officials from the Agricultural Tenancy Association who have expressed their lack of awareness regarding the new provision.
They have expressed their intention to carefully review the amendment before providing their feedback.
