Orissa to amend OPLE Act that would declare encroachment as cognisable offence

Though the OPLE Act was enacted to prevent unauthorised occupation of government land, the fine and penalty was very low in comparision to the growing value of the land. The provisions were inadequate to deter habitual offenders and rich and influential person from grabbing the government land.

The amendments modelled after the Andhra Pradesh Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 1982 would make encroachment a cognisable offence.

As per the old Act, if a person had encroached a government land for more than 30 years then the land were settled in his name. But in the amended Act, such encroachment would be declared as cognisable offence.

“On the one hand unobjectionable encroachments could be settled in favour of the poor people who have occupied the government land for basic livelihood. on the other hand, effective and stringent action could be taken against landgrabbers so as to have a deterrent effect and to prevent further encroachments,” said a revenue department official.

For encroachments of drainage and water channels, the new Act has a provision of fine of Rs 1000 and daily fine of Rs 100. In the old Act, there was no provision for entry to the premises, seizure and removal of the materials and equipments by the tehsildar or collector.

The new Act would have such a provision for entry, seizure and removal of the materials.

Tehsildars would also be given powers to give direction to local bodies, companies and different authorities of the department providing services like electricity, water, telephone and sewerage services for disconnection and stop supply to the unauthorisedly occupied land. If such bodies don’t comply with the orders of tehsildar, fines can be imposed.

In the old Act, the tehsildar had the discretionary power to levy penalty of Rs 100 per acre for each year of illegal encroachment in addition to the assessment of the land rate. But in the amended Act, the discretionary power of tehsildar has been withdrawn. But homesteadless and landless persons would have to pay only the market rate of the land without any penalty.

For levy of assessment of encroachment, the old Act had the provision that the tehsildar had the discretionary power to impose rent upto maximum five times of the annual assessment for homesteadless persons.

In the new Act, the discretionary power of a tehsildar to impose a lesser sum or imposing penalty on homesteadless person has been withdrawn.

The old Act had the provision of summary eviction, forefeiture and fine for landless persons who had unauthorisedly occupied government land. Now under the amended Act, to settle the land the person must have used the land for agriculture purposes. The land land so settled would be heritable and non-transferable for a period of 20 years, unlike the old Act.

The provision of settling the land in favour of homesteadless person not exceeding 1/10th of an acre had been reduced to 1/25th of an acre in the new Act. The Rs 50 fine for such encroachment and daily fine of Rs 10 till the removal of encroachment has also been enhanced to Rs500 and Rs 50 respectively, The discretionary power of tehsildar in imposition of such fines have been withdrawn.

The encroachment of public lands has assumed serious proportion. In order to prevent unauthorised occupation of government land, the revenue and disaster management department had placed a proposal before the chief minister for amendment of various provisions of OPLE Act to make it stringent.

In the old OPLE Act, the word encroachment and encroacher was not defined. The amended Act has the provision that where a lease of government land expires or is terminated or cancelled, the lessee who remains in possession of such land after expiry, termination or cancellation of such land would be treated as encroacher.