West Bengal is the country’s leader in land reform. Looking back, the Regulation of 1793 established the Zamindary system with full proprietary rights in the land subject to the payment of land revenue. The Bengal Tenancy Act became law in 1885. This legislation aimed to consolidate various land-related statutes. The Board of Revenue emerged in 1786. This Board was the supreme authority over the state’s entire land revenue administration. Following independence on August 15, 1947, the West Bengal government promulgated the West Bengal Estate Acquisition Act 1953, which abolished all intermediary interests. A large amount of land was vested. The West Bengal Land Reforms Azt of 1995 followed, and families were the basis of ceilings. Contrary to all other states, the state has distributed 23% of the total land sent into the country and 53% of the beneficiaries. West Bengal has registered over 15 lakh Bargadars/ Sharecroppers, a first in the country, and has distributed homestead land to over 5.6 lakh beneficiaries. There are more than 30 lakh patta holders in the state. 

The Department of Land and Land Reforms is in charge of land reform. As a result, it is of the utmost importance to enhance its capacity for implementing land reforms in the interests of landless, marginal, and small farmers. The land is near and dear to the villagers, who constitute 70% of West Bengal’s population. The state’s total land area is 86,87,540 hectares, with a net cultivated area of 54,63,678 hectares. Thai land, which accounts for approximately 63% of the total area, is owned by 4.30 crore landholders/raiyats. 

From the previous viewpoint, the Department of Land and Land Reforms is one of the major State departments with an extensive citizen interface. The Department of Land and Land Reforms (abbreviated L & L.R. Department) is critical in the West Department because it offers services to citizens and businesses and interacts with other government agencies. The department is one of the most important revenue-generating government agencies. 

The department has a broad interface with citizens, businesses, and other state government public sector departments, and it interacts with these stakeholders daily. The department manages a large amount of land record data, which is growing daily. For example, the department keeps land records for 42,159 Mouzas and approximately 4.30 crore Khaitans across the state. Managing such voluminous information, which has grown exponentially over the years, in manual systems can affect the department’s ability to provide effective and efficient services. To fix current issues in manual operations and further improve service delivery, the department is focusing on using Global Best Practices in land records management, utilizing technology, upgrading human capacities through the growth of internal skill sets, and so on. 

Continuous efforts to modernize and change have aided the department’s goals. The department also intends to use a multi-channel service delivery model to provide stakeholders with convenient services. 

Reforms and Management of Land 

The land is critical to many poor people who rely on agriculture for a living. The land provides physical subsistence, a decent, dignified livelihood, and the family’s overall health. As a result, the issue of land rights and resource access is where land must serve as a productive unit that sustains interrelated livelihood resources. 

Land reforms are a suite of policies designed to address the problems that agrarian societies face due to the skewed nature of land distribution. As a result, the government has a legal and moral obligation to ensure that this resource is used optimally and in a socially acceptable manner. 

Land reform implementation and the evolution of equitable agrarian relations are goals inherited from the Indian freedom movement. It is deeply rooted in our national psyche. West Bengal is one of India’s few states where land reform has taken effect. The following are the main components of our West Bengal land reform program:

Through due process of law, we got to vest 26.48 lac acres of land under the West Bengal Estate Acquisition Act of 1953 and 3.98 lac acres under the West Bengal Land Reforms Act of 1995. However, simply vesting surplus land at the ceiling does not serve the purpose. As a result of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act of 1955, vast amounts of vested land have been available to landless people. We have distributed 11 lac acres of agricultural land to 33 Pattadars. 

“Nijo Girha Nijo Bhumi Prokalpa,” which was launched in 2011, is another feather in the cap of the West Bengal Land Reforms Programme, which promotes the overall development of landless and poor people. It is a novel scheme to secure ownership of a small plot of homestand land that is lifting many families out of poverty and into prosperity. So far, 2 lac landless people have been provided with homestead land under the scheme. 

“Operation Barga” has become synonymous with land reform in West Bengal in some way. Our department undertook an innovative crash program to record the name of Bargadar in the record of rights. In the state, nearly 15.20 burglars have been recorded across 11.18 lac acres of land under this program. Following the recording, the baradari has significantly reduced its reliance on landowners and money lenders. They have become more articulate and have gained self-esteem. Furthermore, a guaranteed tenure and increased entitlement to a share of the produce encourage burglars to put in more labor and investment in agriculture, increasing overall agricultural productivity. 

Effective land reform implementation necessitates the proper management of land records with the accuracy of rights records. Land, as a dynamic entity, constantly changes its ownership, boundaries, and classification; if these changes are not promptly recorded, the land reforms become obsolete. Such out-of-date records exacerbate rather than resolve conflict. The mutation is a quasi-judicial, time-consuming, and machinery-dependent process. 

Again, the current government has made history by changing the age-old rule of mutation to create “Automated Mutation.” Most sale-transfers will be immediately reflected in the right records by linking the registration process with mutation and making some changes to the procedure of disposal of mutation. It is undeniably a giant step forward in the field of land reform.