{"id":108587,"date":"2020-11-12T16:43:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T23:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108587"},"modified":"2020-11-12T16:43:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T23:43:05","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c8c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/12\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c8c\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 C8c"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

LAND DEEDS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To accommodate the acquisition of land for this proposed economic\ncorridor, two new laws, namely the State Land Bank bill and Land Special\nProvision Bill, were to be enacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State Land (Special Provisions) Bill was gazetted on\n27.03.19.” This is a Bill to grant absolute title to state lands held by\ncitizens who hold land grants. Its validity is for seven years. Analysts have seen a connection between the MCC Land projects and the\nYahapalana plans to dispose of state land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According Part I Section 3, the provisions of the Act shall apply\nto persons who are holders of (i) a grant under the Land Development Ordinance;\n(ii) an instrument of disposition under Land Grants (Special Provisions) Act;\n(iii) an instrument of disposition under Crown Lands Ordinance for agricultural\npurposes provided that they have held the Land “for more than ten years\nimmediately prior to the appointed date of this Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, according to Section 4, the Act shall not apply to Land\n(i) over one thousand five hundred and twenty-four meters above mean sea level;\n(ii) declared as development areas; (iii) within reservations or protected\nareas; (iv) vested in any Local Authority; (v) declared by the Minister; (vi)\nany settlement programme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Part II, applications for eligibility would be\nreviewed by a Committee made up of fifteen Secretaries of related Ministries\nand five ex-officio Members such as the Land Commissioner who shall be the\nChairman of the Committee, the Surveyor General, the Registrar General of Lands\nand nominees of the President and the Prime Minister. The Committee would be\nassisted by administrative arrangements such as Sub-Committees and Boards to\nreview objections that are normal to finalizing the report of the Committee for\nsubmission to the Minister for Lands who in turn is expected to forward it to\nthe President for issuance of the Absolute Land Grants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move will enable those occupying these lands to sell or\ntransfer ownership legally and also obtain other facilities such as bank loans\nand use the deed as a valid document for school admissions, said Yahapalana .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bill\ncovers lands granted under the provisions of the Land Development Ordinance,\nlands disposed under the provisions of the Land Grant (Special Provisions) Act\nor lands provided under the Crown Lands Ordinance granted for agricultural\npurposes, under a land settlement programme or a colonization scheme. Those\nholding land grants and permits for more than 10 years will be benefited by the\nnew legislation. They are entitled to\napply and be eligible to get an Absolute Land Grant up to five acres in extent\nunder the provisions of this Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nprovisions of this Act apply to holders of grants under the provisions of the\nLand Development Ordinance, instruments of disposition under the provisions of\nthe Land Grants (Special Provisions) Act, and instruments of disposition of\nlands under the Crown Lands Ordinance granted for agricultural purposes or\ncolonization schemes\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Committee\nwill forward its observations to the Land Minister on all applications for\nAbsolute Land Grants and the relevant documents, and the minister will forward\nthem to the President. Once the President issues the Absolute Land Grants,\nthose will be registered in the Land Registry.\nThe grantee of an Absolute Land Grant will have the right of transfer of\nthe land to the heirs or with the consent of all heirs in writing to sell such\nland to any person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 20-member\n\u2018Land Grants Committee\u2019 consisting of Ministry Secretaries, Heads of relevant\ninstitutions and two nominees of the President and the Prime Minister will be\nappointed for the administration of this Act. However, any land which is used\nfor paddy cultivation can be sold only to another farmer. President Sirisena had wanted that the land\ncould be sold only for a person in the adjoining Grama Niladhari division\npreventing persons from outside areas from buying lands on a large scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Absolute\nLand Grant issued by the President will be conclusive proof of absolute title\nto that land. It will be admissible and valid before any court, institution or\nauthority for any transaction, business, transfer of title, as security for a\nbond or for any other purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister said that large extents of land had been\ndistributed among the people under the D.S. Senanayake administration. Those\nlands were given under the Land Development Ordinance of 1932. “People\nwere given licences. Later people were given letters when they were settled.\nSometimes people were settled without any documentation. None of these groups\nhave deeds to show outright land ownership,” he said. Without land deeds those people faced a\nnumber of issues and at times they were asked to leave. “With these deeds you can use your land\nfreely. “For a country to develop\npeople must have the ownership of land,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Ranil Wickremesinghe said\nthat the government was distributing one million deeds to the people granting\nthem outright ownership of their land. “People\nwho have been using plots of land for over a decade will get outright land\nownership.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bill has been virulently opposed. The Bill has been submitted\nwithout the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers, said critics. The Bill with\namendments proposed by President should be presented for Cabinet approval\nbefore it is submitted to Parliament. But Lands Minister has submitted the Bill\nto Parliament without presenting it to Cabinet, said Dayasiri Jayasekera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics want to know whether there was a connection between this\ndecision and Millennium Challenge Corporation Agreement (MCC) which the Government\nis expected to sign with the United States of America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government seems to be in a mighty hurry to grant outright\nownership to those who have their land holdings under the Land Development\nOrdinance of 1935, said critics. The government wants to neutralize the Land\nDevelopment Ordinance, Crown Land Ordinance and Lands Grant Act by way of the\nproposed Lands (Special Provisions) Bill. These had ensured the state land\nprovided to the needy families remained with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nintroduction and the implementation of the Land Development Ordinance 1935 was\none of the most important welfare measures taken before independence. It was a\nvery effective rural development strategy followed during pre and post\nindependent period, explained critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial\nobjectives of the Land Development Ordinance 1935 were (a) protecting peasant\nfarmers as a group (b) alleviating land hunger among the poorest of the poor\n(c) relieving population pressure of the villagers in the wet zone of the\ncountry, (d) increasing food production particularly paddy (e) developing the\nscarcely populated dry zone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The land\nalienation was done under different types of schemes such as major settlement\nschemes, village expansion schemes, highland settlement schemes, middle class\nschemes, and youth settlement schemes and regularization of encroachments. The\nland alienated originally was crown land. Latterly with suitable crown land not\nbeing available land from other sources such as estates were acquired and\nalienated under this Ordinance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the 1935\nOrdinance the allottee could not fragment the land, mortgage the land or\ndispose of it without Government Agent\u2019s permission. The tenure was liable to\ncancellation for any default. The allottee\u2019s land was a protected holding.\nSelection of allottees was done at a land Kachcheri by the Government Agent or\nhis representative. Landless peasants from the area with large families were\ngiven preference and on selection were issued a permit. The land could be\npassed on, only to a nominated successor by the allottee. This prevented\nfragmentation of peasant holdings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the\npermit holder had fulfilled the requirements stipulated in the permit he was\nentitled to receive a grant of his allotment. The grantee was able to freely\ndispose of his allotment without the consent of the Government. However, The\nLDO requires peasant holder to obtain the prior consent of the Government Agent\nbefore disposal. The restriction has been designed to prevent the passing of\nland intended for the peasantry to the richer classes or high income groups.\nThe LDO ensures that no State land shall be alienated to any person other than\ncitizens of Sri Lanka and declaring that any alienation made in contravention\nof this provision shall be invalid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics said the new Land Bill would have far reaching\nconsequences which the country couldn\u2019t cope with. Since farmers are\nchronically indebted, the reforms underway will in all likelihood lead them to\nsell their plots. “We\u2019ll have to struggle with thousands of families being\nhomeless with the selling off of their property overnight,” critics said. A\nfarmer who owned about a quarter acre of land, after selling it to a\nmultinational company would himself be destitute after some time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well organized unscrupulous politically influential persons would\nrapidly procure land received by the landless. The project would cause a\nmassive displacement of people, especially smallholders. It will drive poor\npeasant families off the state land they had settled on for generations,\ncritics said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of the village having a temple, agricultural land and\na tank would be gone. Factories would crop up in farm lands. The agricultural\neconomy would fall. The natural environment might change for the worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics have also seen the new Bill as a move to enable Yahapalana\nto sell off state land to foreign companies. Through this Bill government seeks\nto dispose of large tracts of land in a short time,  to make them quickly available for investors.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ranil\nWickremesinghe administration was also attempting to create a cheap labour\nforce needed to facilitate the implementation of neoliberal economic policies,\nby amending` land laws, said the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform,\nMONLAR. Providing land deeds may look like a progressive move but we have to\nlook at the reasons said MONLAR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand there is a serious crisis in the rural economy,\ncreated by the policies of successive governments, especially the present\nadministration. On the other hand,\nlarge multinational companies have made small time farmers bankrupt and are\nbuying off their agricultural land. The\nonly thing that has held back these predatory companies and the neoliberal\neconomic policies are the so-called antiquated land laws. By giving desperate people, an asset that\nthey can sell the government has ensured that these lands will be sold\noff.”  They will sell their small\nholdings for a pittance. The net result will be the rise of a generation of\npoverty stricken landless population in rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molar said that they had looked at all documents approved by the\nCabinet between January 2015 and April 2019 on land reform, recommendations\ngiven by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the government\non the land rights of the people and bi-lateral trade agreements between Sri\nLanka and other countries had the potential projects that would deprive the\npeople of their land rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The target clearly is state owned land. In Sri Lanka, we have\nfreehold properties that belong to individuals or companies and then there is\nstate owned land a portion of which is utilized directly by the government and\na portion which remains allocated for other purposes of the republic such as\nforest reserves and the like and another potion of state land is held by the\npublic under lease or licensing arrangements, pointed out Chandraprema. It is\nobviously the latter that the MCC is targeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though such state owned lands have been alienated to\nindividuals under licensing or long term lease arrangements, the tenants on these\nlands enjoy security of tenure because the government will not simply kick them\noff the land if it is cultivated and used productively. The lease holder or\nlicensee will be adequately compensated before the government takes back a\nstate land which has been given to private individuals for farming or other\npurposes. We almost never hear of even the smallest of smallholders being\nunreasonably evicted from state owned land that had been leased or given to\nthem on a license by the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such land can also be passed down from generation to generation\nprovided the land had been utilized productively. The fact that the land is\nowned by the state discourages fragmentation of the land and strategic buying\nup of cheap land by organized parties <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admittedly, recipients of state owned land on lease will face\nissues when trying to raise money from banks with the land pledged as surety.\nBanks prefer freehold land. However, this was a problem that had to be dealt\nwith at the level of the banks instead of trying to give leaseholders freehold\ntenure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If leaseholds on state land can be bought and sold between\ncitizens of Sri Lanka and their only problem is the inability to use that lease\nas collateral, the answer to that can\u2019t be the wholesale transformation of such\nlands into freehold tenures. There is besides, the well-founded fear that if\nstate owned lands which are at present farmed by individuals on leasehold or\nlicensing arrangements are turned into freehold properties, it will not be long\nbefore unscrupulous elements lay their hands on these lands creating a landless\nrural population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first attempt to do away with these laws was made in 2003. The\nUNF had wanted to see large scale organized transferring of ownership of land\nand this would have certainly become law if not for the Supreme Court ruling\ngiven in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.Justice Shirani Bandaranayake ruled that the disputed Bill should\nbe approved in parliament with a two-thirds majority and by the people at a\nreferendum. The ruling, he said was based primarily  on two factors (1) As\nthe subject of land is under the purview of the Provincial Councils, the Bill\nrequired the consent of 09 Provincial Councils and (11) The exclusive right\nenjoyed by the President in respect of granting of land cannot be transferred\nto the Minister responsible for the subject of lands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Yahapalana UNP revived the project. “It was the same\nBill rejected by the Supreme Court in 2003. The cabinet discussed it several\ntimes after January 2015. ” it was difficult to see how this law could take\neffect in view of 2003 Supreme Court ruling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics argue that the present Bill would violate the sovereignty\nof the People as given in entrenched Article 3 of the Constitution, Land cannot\nbe granted to anyone outright without a two-third approval of Parliament and\napproval by the People at a Referendum all land and all its resources belong to\nall the people of Sri Lanka as part of their sovereignty. This is inalienable.\nGovernments hold Land in trust, said critics. This has been determined by the Supreme\nCourt in several instances   such as the\nEppawela case (S.C. 884\/99) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

State Land is an inalienable right of the sovereignty of the\nPeople. In view of this undeniable and uncontestable fact, it is a violation of\nthe inalienable rights of all the People for any government to legislate\ngranting Absolute Land Grants to some of the People, an asset that belongs to\nall without due process of two-third approval of Parliament and approval of the\nPeople at a Referendum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Special Determination petition challenging the Bill entitled\n\u2018State Land (Special Provisions)\u2019 was filed before the Supreme Court in July\n2019. Convener of the of the Truth Seeker\u2019s Organization has sought a\ndeclaration that this Bill shall become law only through a two-thirds majority\nin Parliament and the approval of the people at a referendum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The petitioner, Attorney Premanath Dolawatta stated that the\nconcerned bill was presented to Parliament and placed in the Order Paper of\nParliament on June 28, 2019. Dolawatta states that the Bill contains 36 clauses\nand a schedule and the entirety of the Bill violates and is inconsistent with\nArticles 3, 4, 12(1), 12(2), 75, 154G of the Constitution. The petitioner\nstated that the purpose of the proposed law is to alienate State lands which\namounts to a breach of the duty of the state to be the guardian of state lands\nholding the same in trust. There have been several other petitions against this\nBill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court examined the Bill titled State Lands (Special\nProvisions)\u201d which has been challenged in the Supreme Court in terms of Article\n121 (1) of the Constitution and gave its determination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supreme Court determined that in terms of Article 120 read with\nthe Article 123 of the Constitution, that the Bill in question is in respect of\na matter set out in the Provincial Council List, and shall not become Law\nunless it has been referred by the President to every Provincial Council, for\nthe expression of their views thereon, and only thereafter be placed on the\nOrder Paper of Parliament, as required by Article 154G (3) of the Constitution.\nThe Supreme Court has further observed that the Bill has been placed on the\nOrder Paper of Parliament without compliance with the Provisions of Article 154\nG (3.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upset over land does not end there. For some time now, land\nrights activists and analysts have warned of potentially disastrous\nconsequences of reforms to land laws contemplated by the Wickremesinghe-led\ngovernment announced critics. President Sirisena said he had blocked two\n\u2018anti-national\u2019 Land Bills the PM sought to introduce. He said these new laws\nsought to allow foreigners to buy any land in the country, both privately and\npublicly owned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LAND BANK <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“USA has done a study on Sri Lanka and issued a report with\nrecommendations on Sri Lankan lands. They are engaged in surveying the lands in\nSri Lanka and have suggested establishing a state land bank. According to these\nproposals all state lands would come under this bank, allowing these lands to\nbe given to anyone even foreign parties said critics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government\u2019s moves to remove the bar on foreigners owning\nland, the removal of the 50-acres limit on individual ownership, the proposed\n\u2018Land Bank\u2019 (that will bring publicly owned land under a single hub and make it\navailable for private investors), are inter-related.”You need to look at\nall the factors to see the final outcome” said MONLAR<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LAND\nSURVEYS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, there\nis an interesting tussle going on regarding land surveys. Trimble Navigation\nLtd, a US company based in California, had in\nOctober 2015,  forwarded a proposal for \u2018Title\/Tenure\nRegularisation and Cadastral Registry Modernisation\u2019 in Sri Lanka. This\nproposal has been rejected earlier in 2010.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A high level\ncommittee headed by senior advisor to Prime Minister R. Paskeralingam had\nrecommended this proposal. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM)\napproved it  and Cabinet    accepted it. Trimble had\nasked for USD 170 million and Yahapalana had beaten it down to USD 154 million. The money would come as a loan at\nan interest of four percent. The loan is to be paid back in 15 years inclusive\nof a grace period of five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Finance\nMinistry\u2019s External Resources Department was authorized to negotiate with\nTrimble to prepare land survey maps and create a streamlined database of 3.6\nmillion parcels of state owned land. Trimble would\nfirst survey 2.5mn blocks of land around the country, excluding the Western\nProvince and issue title deeds. Then it would\nsurvey 2.5mn plots of land in the Western Province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government Surveyors\u2019 Association (GSA)   announced \nin January 2017, that there was a move to hand over several operations\nof the Sri Lanka Survey Department (SLSD), including Land Information System\n(LIS) and Aerial Survey Operations to Trimble Navigation for 15 years  \u2018The required plans are already in place to\ncomplete the transfer. It appears that the US government had forced Yahapalana\nto agree to this, said the surveyors.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was\nobserved some time later, that \u2018the  \nland part of the Compact seems to have undergone drastic change.\u2019 There\nis no mention now of giving deeds to those occupying state lands so that they\ncan sell the land and become destitute. The focus now is on creating a\ncadastral map of land parcels and creating a complete digital inventory of\nstate land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surveyors are\nnot impressed.  This is exactly what the\nAmerican firm, Trimble was going to do, at the start of Yahapalana rule,\nsurveyors said. They also said that this mapping which the Compact is talking\nabout could be done by the Land use Planning Department. The Land use Planning\nDepartment has already mapped out all sorts of land, they said.   They have mapped out protected areas,\nunutilized lands,    underutilized lands,\nabandoned paddy lands, river basins, water sheds. The data will   be fed into ICTA\u2019s National Spatial Data\nInfrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Compact is now focusing on under-utilized state land\u201d   held by government Departments, such as the\nGovernment Railway. The Compact is eyeing these lands, which it says can\ngenerate better revenue in the hands ofindustrial\ninvestors.  Sri Lanka will have a place\nin these industrial ventures. The MCC compact will provide opportunities for\nSri Lankan companies to compete and win multi- million dollar projects,”\nthe US embassy said. We want private\nsector expertise and we pay really well.”  (Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS LAND DEEDS To accommodate the acquisition of land for this proposed economic corridor, two new laws, namely the State Land Bank bill and Land Special Provision Bill, were to be enacted. The State Land (Special Provisions) Bill was gazetted on 27.03.19.” This is a Bill to grant absolute title to state lands held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}