The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to examine and explore the possibility as to whether any Act can be brought to regularise the encroachments made on government land by small and marginal farmers.

This decision was taken by a High Powered Committee constituted by the government to assess and review the encroachment cases in the state that met here on Thursday under the chairmanship of Health, Revenue and Law Minister, Kaul Singh Thakur to review the latest status of encroachment cases in various parts of the state.

Kaul Singh Tkahur said, “Himachal being a welfare state and it being the responsibility of the state to protect the rights particularly connected to the livelihood of the people and in view of magnitude of the livelihood and the human approach, the state government was making all out efforts to provide relief to the small and marginal farmers of the state.”

However, the government was strictly against the big encroachers and action was being taken accordingly against the defaulters, he added.

After detailed discussion, Additional Chief Secretary-cum- Financial Commissioner Revenue Shrikant Baldi has been directed to explore all possible legal options in the ambit of law and put up suggestions before the committee whether the small and marginal farmers and farmers belonging to backward areas having less than 10 bighas of land could be provided some relief.

A decision was also taken to examine and explore the possibility as to whether any Act can be brought to regularize the encroachments made on Government land by small and marginal farmers. It was also decided to explore all possible legal remedies to file a review petition in Honble High Court, to provide relief to the small and marginal farmers who have encroached upon the government land in dire necessity on humanitarian grounds.

An application for seeking deferment on hearing the encroachment cases made against small encroachers over the government land was filed in the High Court by the governemnt which was still pending adjudication.

Possibility was being explored of making request to the High court to hear various CWPILs pending adjudication pertaining to removal of encroachment on government land by clubbing them together and placed before a special bench so that there may be uniformity in directions qua manner of removal of encroachments.

Suggestions were also sought on the issue as to whether Himachal Pradesh Regularization of Encroachments (in certain cases) on Government Land and Disposal of Government Land Rules, 2002 can be amended to provide relief to marginal and small farmers. The next meeting of the Committee has been fixed on January 28 in Shimla.