Tardy till now, Bihar catches up on land reforms

6 MONTHS IN POWER PART - V

At long last, Bihar, the first state in the country to abolish zamindari, is moving in the direction of land reforms.

The strongest evidence yet of this intention came late last week when D Bandhopadhyay, a retired bureaucrat who played a crucial role in West Bengal's land reforms, arrived in Patna to meet Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and other key office bearers.

The state government is also setting up a land reforms commission. "The commission will be constituted very soon. Yes, Mr Bandhopadhyay was here. He was consulted and his advice was taken," said Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi. It is not clear whether Bandhopadhyay will head the commission.

Bandhopadhyay, citing his bureaucratic moorings, refused to comment on the meeting. He said his meeting with the chief minister could be verified by the secretariat's official schedule and it was up to the chief minister to talk about it.

However, under the new government, there seems to be an unequivocal consensus in favour of land reforms.

"Labour reforms are essential in the state. Ideally, Bihar should follow the West Bengal model," says Saibal Gupta, member-secretary of Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute.

Modi, however, points out that conditions in Bihar are very different from what prevailed in West Bengal 20 years ago, when reforms were undertaken there.

"The situation has changed. The ceiling for keeping a holding and all other issues have to be considered in Bihar's context. There is also the issue of lakhs of acres taken during the Bhudaan campaign," says Modi.

Gupta points out that Bihar ceased to be a functioning state much before Lalu and kin came to power in 1990. On key economic parameters, it became the second worst among the country's major states in 1961 and the worst by 1971.

During British rule, land revenue was of paramount importance and the rulers simply co-opted the existing feudals, giving them land holding rights, thus creating a tier between the tenant and the state.

With that started the regime of permanent settlers, as opposed to ryotwari in southern India and Malwari in Punjab. The latter two turned out to be the better systems of governance.