Bhubaneswar, May 29: The Odisha government's inter-ministerial committee, entrusted with the task of bringing a bill to provide various incentives to sharecroppers, today failed to arrive at a consensus on the broad features of the legislation.

Linked to the proposed legislation is the Naveen Patnaik government's efforts to win over the rural peasantry through financial assistance, agricultural inputs subsidy, crop insurance, disaster relief assistance and such other benefits to the sharecroppers.

Official sources said 55 lakh families in Odisha were farmers, and of them, 80 per cent were sharecroppers - the real tillers of the land. In the state, the produce is distributed between sharecroppers and the landowners. The government, however, is planning to empower the sharecroppers without disturbing the existing land ownership pattern.

The inter-ministerial committee of the state government, headed by revenue minister Maheshwar Mohanty, today met to find ways to give sharecroppers and landowners their respective rights. "This is a big exercise. Until and unless we identify the sharecroppers, the government cannot waive crop loans and give relief assistance to the land tillers. Our aim is to send a message that landowners' rights on land won't be disturbed by empowering sharecroppers," said a senior member of the committee.

But, the committee failed to reach a consensus on the issue of how to distribute agricultural produce between the landowners and sharecroppers.

According to a draft legislation, the lessee cultivator would pay the landowner either in cash or in agriculture produce. "If the lessee cultivator gives it in the cash, there will be return of the zamindari system, which had been abolished decades ago. Besides, we have not been able to reach a solution on the agriculture produce share ratio between the landowners and the sharecroppers," he said.

Agriculture minister Damodar Rout said: "There are many contentious issues which need an elaborate deliberation. We will sit again on June 1 to discuss the issue."

The new legislation will be called the Odisha Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2017. There will be execution of leased agreement between the sharecroppers and the landowners. It shall be done in presence of two witnesses and authenticated by local tehsildar or revenue inspector or sarpanch.

The terms of agreement shall be for a minimum period of three years, and the parties with mutual consent may further extend it. The lessee cultivator has no right over the leased agricultural land excepting for cultivation purposes. The landowner will be free to mortgage the land without affecting the agreement and will not be under any obligation to extend the contract. In the event of any dispute between the cultivator and the landowner, they will resort to the local dispute resolution mechanism and will not approach the judiciary. Local revenue officials, who will register the deeds, will play a major role. Once the tenants are identified and registered, the government will have no problem in extending financial assistance to the cultivators, officials said.

Director, Centre for Rights and Resources, Centurion University, Sanjoy Patnaik said: "The government should stress on effective communication. The landowner should get a message that their land is protected and cannot be taken away by the cultivators. This will be the biggest incentive for them to reveal the identity of the sharecroppers."

He further said the government should create a conducive atmosphere for a mutually beneficial rental agreement between the landowners and the sharecroppers. "The law should give a fixed and assured tenure to the cultivators and adequately give incentives to the landowners," he said.