Changes to a law in India’s Gujarat state will allow authorities to develop land that was intended for distribution to impoverished farmers which will be challenged in the court by campaigners. India’s president, Ram Nath Kovind, last week approved amendments to the state’s agricultural land ceiling act, which caps the amount of land held by an individual.
Excess farmland surrendered to the state in the 1960s, when the law was enacted across the country, was meant to be distributed to poor farmers and landless villagers. The amendment allows the state to change the use of the land for industrial use. State officials have said some of the surplus land is not viable for farming, and that some of the land will be used to build schools and for other public purposes.
About 60 % of India’s population of 1.3 billion people depends on agriculture for its livelihood. More than half the country’s lower-caste population is landless but only about 5 million acres (2 million hectares) have been redistributed to approximately six million poor farmers, according to government think tank Niti Aayog. We need the state to redistribute land, not amend the law to make it easier to use the land for other purposes when there are so many still waiting for land.
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