Land acquisition in TN -- The labryinth path - I
kaani nilam vEndum parasakthi kaani nilam vEndum
andha kaani nilathinilE Or maaLigai katti thara vEndum
what a simple request from Mahakavi Bharathi. His greatness is shown even here. For this request that is seeming simple, he knew very well who should he ask - no less than a Godess. Why not some mortal? He knows it is next to impossible. For him financial crisis was a bigger issue then, but for many people in present years it is all but finance that still keeps the above stanza alive.
Acquiring a residential plot, a piece of land, in big cities of TamilNadu, especially in Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai and their suburbs is life exhausting, high risk dream of every middle & upper middle class income people, and it is next to impossible for middle class and low income class people.
On the one hand the prices are skyrockting like anything with pure gambling hype on the other hand the heavy risk that loads everyones mind is - is it a geniune piece of asset or am I being cheated? Less to say that many wouldn't even know that they could be cheated even innovatively. A few weeks earlier, in a thamizh weekly magazine I read about the plight of an IAS officer to get an offical record, popularly known as patta, for the piece of land that he bought & owned legally. It seems he had to expend 11 years of his energy for the same. If such is the plight of a govt. officer even during "those" days (80s & 90s) think about the fate of commoners now.
Where does the problem lie? If not a square blame, atleast a lion's share of this blame should lie in the steps of government, especially the executive wing of TN government.
History first. During kings rules, even during moghul-arab-persian rules, the land administration by the kings' govt. was entirely different from the present one. During the kings' days, kings used to award lands to esteemed, well-known and well-acknowledge people, in the tunes of villages -- "We allot 'this' village to you and your clan for all the good deeds that you did for the kingdom". Those people would take the village; build good big houses for them and use a vast amount of land for agriculture; employ the locals in farm activities (the main/primary occupation of those days); give land for their houses; share the prospects from the land sumptously with the villagers; paid one-sixth of the income to the kings' exchequer. It was a federal way of administration by the kingdom. Not everything was written down as a single constitution then. That is why one could say many "constitutions" were written & in use during different ages the chief/ popular/famous among them being the smritis of manu, pathanchaji et al. manusmriti has become a notorious one now. This emphasies the federalism as, then in India, multiple smritis were followed by people. This historic note until the arrival of British crown rule in India emphasises the decentralisation of land administration. This was overall successful method. This system has its own disadvantages (as the zamindaars could easily become autocrats as shown in many movies and stories). But overall it did work with the social set-up of India then.
When the British took over things changed. The present land administration system is completely set by British. Since the British were not the people of the country they needed account of every piece of land in India for their better control. Thus came the present, centralised form of land administration into existence.
......to be continued.
back
andha kaani nilathinilE Or maaLigai katti thara vEndum
what a simple request from Mahakavi Bharathi. His greatness is shown even here. For this request that is seeming simple, he knew very well who should he ask - no less than a Godess. Why not some mortal? He knows it is next to impossible. For him financial crisis was a bigger issue then, but for many people in present years it is all but finance that still keeps the above stanza alive.
Acquiring a residential plot, a piece of land, in big cities of TamilNadu, especially in Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai and their suburbs is life exhausting, high risk dream of every middle & upper middle class income people, and it is next to impossible for middle class and low income class people.
On the one hand the prices are skyrockting like anything with pure gambling hype on the other hand the heavy risk that loads everyones mind is - is it a geniune piece of asset or am I being cheated? Less to say that many wouldn't even know that they could be cheated even innovatively. A few weeks earlier, in a thamizh weekly magazine I read about the plight of an IAS officer to get an offical record, popularly known as patta, for the piece of land that he bought & owned legally. It seems he had to expend 11 years of his energy for the same. If such is the plight of a govt. officer even during "those" days (80s & 90s) think about the fate of commoners now.
Where does the problem lie? If not a square blame, atleast a lion's share of this blame should lie in the steps of government, especially the executive wing of TN government.
History first. During kings rules, even during moghul-arab-persian rules, the land administration by the kings' govt. was entirely different from the present one. During the kings' days, kings used to award lands to esteemed, well-known and well-acknowledge people, in the tunes of villages -- "We allot 'this' village to you and your clan for all the good deeds that you did for the kingdom". Those people would take the village; build good big houses for them and use a vast amount of land for agriculture; employ the locals in farm activities (the main/primary occupation of those days); give land for their houses; share the prospects from the land sumptously with the villagers; paid one-sixth of the income to the kings' exchequer. It was a federal way of administration by the kingdom. Not everything was written down as a single constitution then. That is why one could say many "constitutions" were written & in use during different ages the chief/ popular/famous among them being the smritis of manu, pathanchaji et al. manusmriti has become a notorious one now. This emphasies the federalism as, then in India, multiple smritis were followed by people. This historic note until the arrival of British crown rule in India emphasises the decentralisation of land administration. This was overall successful method. This system has its own disadvantages (as the zamindaars could easily become autocrats as shown in many movies and stories). But overall it did work with the social set-up of India then.
When the British took over things changed. The present land administration system is completely set by British. Since the British were not the people of the country they needed account of every piece of land in India for their better control. Thus came the present, centralised form of land administration into existence.
......to be continued.
back
posted by Kupps at 6:32 AM
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