The Assembly today passed the Himachal Pradesh Ceiling on Land Holdings (Amendment) Bill, 2024, though some BJP members and Minister for Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Chander Kumar expressed apprehensions about it. A total of 14 Bills were passed.
The government had introduced the Bill to help the transfer of land of a hospital set up by Radha Soami Satsang Beas at Bhota in Hamirpur district.
The Dera Beas was holding land in the state beyond the permissible limit, as prescribed under the Himachal Pradesh Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1972, as it was exempted under the provisions of Clause (i) of Section 5 of the Act.
The Dera Beas had requested the state government time and again to allow it to transfer about 30 acres and the building of the Bhota Charitable Hospital to the Jagat Singh Medical Relief Society, a sister organisation, for better management of medical services. The Section 5 of the Act bars the transfer of land or structure.
The government introduced the Bill to facilitate land transfer of the Bhota Charitable Hospital to the Jagat Singh Medical Relief Society in public interest. As per the amendment to the Act, for other cases of similar nature, a provision of the permission of the state government had been proposed with certain conditions.
BJP’s Naina Devi MLA Randhir Sharma, while participating in the debate over the amendment Bill, said that it had been brought for the transfer of the hospital land of Radha Soami Satsang Beas.
“The BJP agrees that the hospital run by Radha Soami Satsang Beas is doing a good work in the interest of the people of the state, but this amendment to the Act has been introduced in a limited time and there was no consensus in the Cabinet on it as well. Hence, there is need to consider it in detail again,” he added.
Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur said that Radha Soami Satsang had done a commendable job during the Covid outbreak.
“This institution had also requested previous governments to amend the land holding Act but the law could not be changed to benefit any one institution. This subject is very broad, as cases were also related to the land of the Kings and Maharajas of Himachal under the Land Ceiling Act.
Most of the land of Radha Soami Satsang was donated to it by people, so there is need to investigate and consider all these issues in detail. This issue had come up before the past three governments as well but none of them took the initiative to amend the law. It also came up during our government but we limited it only to a Cabinet discussion,” he added.
Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar, while participating in the discussion, said that Radha Soami Satsang enjoyed the faith of common people.
“Both Congress and BJP want to help this institution but after the implementation of the Land Ceiling Act, 1972, a limit was fixed over landholding due to which big landowners could keep only limited land and the remaining land was vested with the government.
This is one of the most important laws and has been challenged in court earlier also. People coming from other states are getting benami land registered and this needs to be seriously considered, as it can have serious consequences,” he added.
Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi said, “Many institutions have also been given such an exemption earlier. The PK Dhumal government did not even bring an amendment and gave exemption just by issuing a notification.”
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that the previous BJP government had given land worth crore of rupees to big industrialists in Baddi on the lease of Re one “but we want to give exemption to a hospital.
The amendment has been brought under the ambit of law and not for industrialists”. “Two BJP MLAs are sitting on dharna in favour or Radha Soami Satsang while the Opposition is opposing the amendment in the House,” he added.