Rajasthan: Governor finally sends farm amendments bill to the President to stop auction of agriculture land

The 15-month long face-off between the Raj Bhawan and the Ashok Gehlot government ended with the Governor, Kalraj Mishra finally assenting to send the Bill relating to the auction of the agricultural land to the President.

Governor Kalraj Mishra has instructed the state government to start the mandatory process for the amendment of Rajasthan Agriculture Credit Operation (Removal of Difficulties) to enable him send it to the President for the President’s approval. The Bill is called Roda Act and the state government had amended the proviso to section 60 (1) (b) of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) and it was amended on November 2, 2020. Following the amendment of the Bill attachment and auction of land up to five acres belonging to the farmers were prevented.

After the assent to the Bill by the President, banks including the commercial banks would not be able to attach or auction the mortgaged land for recovery of its loans.

The Ashok Gehlot government in November 2020 had introduced the amendment of the RODA ACT after the parliament passed the Farm Bills that was opposed by the farmers forcing the Modi government to repeal the Act. The Gehlot government in November 2020 passed a resolution opposing the Farm Bills in the state Assembly. The state government introduced a Bill of amendment relating to the Act passed by the parliament regarding the criminal proceedings of attachment or auction of the land of 2008. Under this Bill passed by the parliament, the states were given the rights to amend the Bill to suit the state. On the strength of this provision, the state tabled the Bill of the amendment which was passed by the Assembly.

The Bill relates to stopping the auction of mortgaged land up to five acres by the lending bank.

Earlier this month, there was opposition from the farmers when some banks as a recovery process of the mortgaged land started auctioning the land. Then it was found that the banks were auctioning the land of the farmers as the RODA Act amendments were still not effective as the Governor withheld the Bill of amendments and it could not become an effective law. Thus the banks were auctioning the land to recover their dues from the defaulting farmers. However, after hearing the grievance of the farmers, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot urged the banks to stop the auction.

When the land was being auctioned, Chief Minister Gehlot squarely blamed the Governor for withholding the Bill relating to the amendment even after the Modi government withdrew the Farm Bills.

The role of the Governor in withholding the Bills passed by the Assembly was severely criticised and various farmer’s bodies staged dharnas and demonstrations before the Raj Bhawan.

Now as the Governor has consented to send the Bill for the assent of the President, it would bring relief to the farmers whose mortgaged land up to five acres would not come under the hammer.