Revenue Act not amended, kurki yet to become history

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 18

The state government’s move to delete a clause in the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, has failed to end kurki (auction) of mortgaged land of farmers. Reason: the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, has not been amended; the Act still allows for the recovery of arrears of land revenue.

The land of indebted farmers is still being attached and the Revenue Department is ordering auction of lands.

Several instances of protests by farmers are being reported after the department ordered auction of farmland, following farmers’ inability to repay their loans to either arhtiyas or other financial institutions.

Farmer organisations and Opposition parties have started blaming the Congress government for misleading defaulting farmers by claiming that their mortgaged lands cannot be auctioned off. They say Sections 65 to 77 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act provide for harsh measures for attachment of land, property, detention and sale of land of a defaulter, to recover dues.

Sukhbir Singh Badal, SAD president, moved a private members’ bill in the Vidhan Sabha — the Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2017. It seeks the abolition of these Sections in the Punjab Land Revenue Act, which could help save farmers’ land from being auctioned off.

Sources say that by repealing Section 67-A of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, the government only withdrew the powers from the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, to recover dues as arrears of land revenue.

In May, the Revenue Department had “cautioned” the government against amending the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act. It contented that banks may go slow on lending if the recovery provisions were diluted.

There are other laws that aid in the recovery of dues from borrowers such as the Punjab Public Moneys (Recovery of Dues) Act, 1983. Banks are recovering dues under provisions of this Act as well. The department, too, had mentioned this in its letter to the Chief Secretary while opposing the amendment to the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act.

Farm leaders to the rescue in Sangrur

On June 19, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh informed the Vidhan Sabha that his government had decided to repeal Section 67-A of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, which provides for kurki (auction) of farmers’ land. However, there have been several attempts at auction that have been prevented by farmers’ unions:

March: BKU Ugrahan prevented the auction of land of farmer Balwant Singh in Sangrur’s Kheri village.

June: Auction of same land prevented in Kheri village.

July 30: Auction of a widow’s land prevented the fourth time in Ealwal village.

August 8: Auction of a farmer’s land prevented in Mander Khurd village.

August 17: Auction of land prevented in Dhilwan Pindi village.