Form 5 to transfer land erroneously entered in data bank as rice cultivation

Alathur (Palakkad): Local monitoring committee recommendation is no longer required to change land erroneously included in the data bank as being under rice cultivation. The new suggestion is that the report provided by the Agriculture officer will be sufficient for the RDO to take  decision on the applications submitted in Form 5. 

According to the recommendation of the monitoring committee, the agriculture officer had given the report earlier. Henceforth the report can be submitted without the recommendation of the committee. This was clarified in the circular issued by the Additional Secretary of the Revenue Department on March 23.

An application is made under form 5 if a land where rice cultivation was done before 2008 and henceforth converted to fallow land or used for any other purposes, needs to be transferred from the list of rice cultivation land in the data bank. The members of the local monitoring committee are the village panchayat president, agriculture officer, village officer and three farmer representatives. 

Complaints were raised that the gram panchayat president, agriculture officer and village officer were busy with official duties, so the committee meetings were delayed and the decision was also delayed. The meeting cannot be held under such conditions as the Election code of conduct is still in force.

The official explanation is that the meeting chaired by the chief secretary decided to issue a circular to avoid delay in decision making of the committee. The three farmer representatives will often be representatives of political parties associated with Krishi bhavan. Real farmers do not find space in the committee. Committee members are often influenced by political interests and interference by middlemen.