Lalitpur district in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh has been taking proactive steps in solving the longstanding land dispute cases, especially in one of the remotest villages of UP, Balabehat. Revenue cases are a long process and many a times, the innocent party has to face pressure mainly due to political interference and money power.

However, a shift in the process was seen after the district administration of Lalitpur managed to settle as many as 11 land dispute cases on the basis of experiments laid down by the then Divisional Commissioner of Jhansi, retired IAS officer Ajay Shankar Pandey, who is currently doing his D.LIT studies from Bundelkhand University in ‘Land Management System in UP: With Special reference to Bundelkhand region.’

SEEKING SOLUTION

Having a vast experience in dealing with revenue cases in Uttar Pradesh during his stint as a civil servant, Dr. Ajay Shankar Pandey saw how land disputes cases become an unending process and how it damages the personal relations and brotherhood between two parties, who belong to the same village. As revenue administration has restrictions to intervene in such cases, the ultimate remedy is to take the matter to the court. However, Dr Pandey wanted to end this process and implement something which could provide quick redressal.

While speaking with Indian Masterminds, Dr. Ajay Shankar Pandey said, “I always carried an inspiration from Vinoba Bhave, an Indian advocate of nonviolence and human rights, who started the Bhoodan movement in India. Under this movement, the late Bhave, who was also known as Acharya (Sanskrit teacher), took the donated land from the land owners and gave it to the poor and landless people for cultivation. As in this era, this is not possible, we wanted people to donate the illegally captured lands back to the actual owners through mutual consent.”

BRINGING BOTH PARTIES ON THE TABLE

Dr. Pandey carried out this experiment in front of the district administration, and getting a green signal from all ends, the initiative was taken up as a pilot project in Balabehat village in Lalitpur. Balabehat being a remote village, mostly consisting of tribal population and lying on the border of Madhya Pradesh, caters to around 1,542 families who are involved in as many as 114 land dispute cases.

Mr. Santosh Upadhyaya, Pali’s Sub-Divisional Magistrate, while speaking to Indian Masterminds, said, “Firstly, a survey was conducted in the whole village to bring maximum land disputes cases to light. Many came to our notice and some were still hiding it for fear of not getting any redressal as they decades-old cases. Our aim was to motivate the people who had captured the lands illegally to return these back to the actual owners with mutual consent. However, not every person is so kind to do it immediately. It took us many shifts in the village and many meetings to come to a positive conclusion.”

Another unique initiative launched by Dr. Ajay Shankar Pandey was of getting all candidates to work together, regardless of who had won the Gram Sabha elections. Dr. Pandey said, “The candidate who loses the election, rather than working for the people, pulls the rug from under the feet of the winning candidate. Hence, I launched an initiative called the Sadbhavana Gram Yojana, under which, the winning and losing candidates were brought to the same table to work together. The losing candidates will be given the tag of ‘advisor’ so that they can work together and benefit the people, rather than involving themselves in bad village politics.”

SDM Upadhyaya said that this is how a team comprising of revenue officials, members of the gram sabha, and villagers, was formed to focus on around 26 land dispute cases. Both the parties were called and meetings were even held on zoom call with Dr. Ajay Shankar Pandey to reach an amicable settlement.

Using these practices, the district administration of Lalitpur managed to solve 11 land dispute cases out of a total of 26, with just counselling and motivation. This has been one-of-its-kind initiative in the whole of UP, where long standing land dispute cases came to an end with just counselling of both the parties.

After the success of the pilot project in Lalitput, the Balabehat village will be now taken up as a model village for this initiative, and in the long run, this model might get replicated in the whole of UP.