Vichara

President Directs Completion of Urumaya” Program Granting Free Land Rights to 2 Million People by June ( President’s Media Division 22 March 2024).

President RW has declared his intention to contest the upcoming Presidential Elections. According to his supporters, there is a block vote of 2.4 million Asswesuma beneficiaries who are obliged to vote for him. Now the net is cast to capture another 2 million land owners who are to be given freehold titles to land they now occupy as LDO permit holders. If the dependants of the Aswesuma beneficiaries and land grant holders are taken into account UNP supporters estimate that the total would exceed 6 million votes. Whatever the optimistic statistics are, RW is on a grand fishing expedition. The fresh baits are free meals for school children and free rice to the poor during the festive season. There will be more in the next few months.

The doctrine of the Crown trusteeship of land has prevailed from the days of King Devanampiyatissa who was advised by Arhath Mahinda that even the King did not own the land but was only a trustee of the land. The President’s project of granting of free land rights is an irrevocable measure that needs careful examination.

According to our Constitution, the President is bound to abide by its provisions and written law enacted before or after the commencement of the Constitution. This is clearly stipulated in Article 33 of the Constitution which states:

33. In addition to the powers and functions expressly conferred on or assigned to him by the Constitution or by any written law whether enacted before or after the commencement of the Constitution, the President shall have the power 33(f) to do all such acts and things, not being inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution or written law as by international law, custom or usage he is required or authorized to do. is is further confirmed in:

APPENDIX II to The 1978 Constittion

Land and Land Settlement

State land shall continue to vest in the Republic and may be disposed of in accordance with Article 33 (d) and written law governing this matter.

A President is not above the law and is responsible to the Parliament.

The President of the Republic in terms of Article 32 of the Constitution must takean oath stating that he would uphold and defend the Constitution. Therefore it is seen that the President of the Republic is subject to the Constitution. In Mallikaarchchi Vs Shivapasupathi, Attorney General [1985] 1 SLR 74 wherein Sharvananda CJ at page 78 held thus: the President is not above the law” (SC_fr_351_2018)

The exsing law on State land is the CHAPTER 300 – LAND DEVELOPMENT  ORDINANCE TO PROVIDE FOR THE SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT AND ALIENATION OF STATE LAND IN SRI LANKA.

A layman’s view is that the President cannot violate the existing law on the alienation of State land. The proposed measure is completely contrary to the objectives of the 1933 Ordinance of the UNP government of D.S. Senanayake of which the key principles were to:-

1. Prevent the disposal of Crown land by outright sale.
2. Land to be alienated by a system of selection and not by auction.
3. Prevent land alienated to a particular class passing into the hands of other classes.
4. Prevent the fragmentation of land.
5. Ensure succession and keep the new owners out of courts of law in that aspect.

 Even the British administrators accepted the need for a protected tenure for state land given to landless peasants. Colonial administration’s Government Agent C.V.Brayne in 1920 envisaged a peasant proprietor system in which State land would be distributed to growing numbers of landless farmers under a form of inheritable but protected tenure, which disallowed sub-division as well as trading of alienated State land”.

The present flawed policy is inspired by the annulled draft agreement between the MCC and the government of Sri Lanka, MCC funding would be used to provide titles to state-owned land held by individuals, mostly smallholder farmers, thereby facilitating the sale of their lands to any buyer. Conversion of state lands to the private domain, creates a marketable and bankable title to this land in the name of the land holder allowing the use of land as collateral for loans and the free transfer of this land without government restrictions”.

One of the serious outcomes of the President’s political project is land fragmentation. When land consolidation is the proven policy in land administration we are on reverse gear discourging consolidation.

Handing over a piece of paper to poor permit holders giving them legal title over the land does not bring an end to the poverty, indebtedness and many other social problems traumatizing them. Once they get freehold titles the present holder will be forced to divide the land among the children or sell part of the land to outsiders. There will be disharmony among the children and litigation on land ownership and Parate executions will be common. Only the lawyers would benefit by never ending litigation on land.

While Sri Lanka is opening the doors to land fragmentation rest of the world is making every effort on land consolidation.

Many countries in Western Europe have a long tradition for the implementation of land consolidation projects. In most Western European countries, land consolidation has in the last decades developed into a multi-purpose instrument.

Land consolidation and land banking instruments started to develop in Central and Eastern Europe after 1990 and most of the countries have introduced land consolidation while only few already have ongoing national land consolidation programmes. The introduction of land consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe has been driven by the political aim to facilitate agricultural development by reducing land fragmentation and facilitating a structural development towards larger farms. (FAO REU: http://www.fao.org/europe/en/)

The importance of land consolidation for Sri Lanka is identified as the

fundamental measure for facilitating agriculture productivity, rural

development, and making land administration more efficient (FAO, 2003).

It also provides positive grounds for environment management (Crecente et

al., 2002). Conflicts on borders, water, and roads are one of the biggest

issues among farmers in rural areas where the lands are small.

Consolidation enables farmers to improve their spatial and economic

conditions by reducing the number of separate plots on a farm while

alternating the shape of the farm plots allowing mechanization

In Sri Lanka, particularly in the paddy sector, land fragmentation and micro

holdings are among the major issues that impede agricultural and land

productivity.” (www.harti.gov.lk”

National Security

Most of them under economic and social pressure make them easy victims of land grabbers. With the depreciation of the rupee, foreign parties would have a bonanza in purchasing these lands. Sri Lanka should learn a lesson from how the Jews became the major landowners in Palestine and how the Palestinians were confined to refugee camps. The land grab was funded at the beginning by-

  ewish National Fund

  Palestine Jewish Colonization Association

  Palestine Land Development Company

and later by organizations such as the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PJCA), Palestine Land Development Company and the Jewish National Fund.

The rich Tamil diaspora has only to buy some peasant lands to disturb the delicate ethnic balance in the Trincomalee District. Some of the Divisions in the Vavuniya District are as vulnerable.

This project is ill conceived and also contrary to prevailing National Land Policy. One of the selling points of the project is that the landowner is enabled to mortgage the land which was not there earlier. This is a deliberate falsehood. Article 43 of the LD ordinance (as amended in 1975) allowed the mortgage of the land to the Peoples Bank or the State Mortgage and investmen Bank.

Let the government refrain from rushing into irrevocable mesures harmful to the intended very beneficiaries and against national land policy and endangering national security for narrow polical advantage.

Vichara