Tamil nadu act 006 of 2001 : Tamil Nadu Land Improvement Schemes (Amendment) Act, 2001

Section 1. Short title and commencement

1. Short title and commencement.- (1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Land Improvement Schemes (Amendment) Act, 2001.

(2) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification, appoint.

Section 2. Amendment of section 8

2. Amendment of section 8.- In section 8 of the Tamil Nadu Land Improvement Schemes Act, 1959 (Tamil Nadu Act 31 of 1959) (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act),-

(1) in sub-section (2),-

(i) for clauses (b) and (bb), the following clauses shall be substituted, namely:-

"(b) the Commissioner of Land Reforms, ex-officio:

(bb) the Secretary to Government incharge of Agriculture, ex-officio;

(bbb) the Secretary to Government incharge of Environment and Forest, ex-officio,

(bbbb) ???

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(ii) ???

(iii) for clause (e), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:

"(e) the Chief Engineer (Agricultural Engineering), who shall be the Member-Secretary, ex-officio;"

(iv) in clause (g), for the expression "a member who is an active and progressive agriculturist", the expression "three members who are active and progressive agriculturists" shall be substituted;

(2) sub-section (3) shall be omitted;

(3) in sub-section (9), for the expression "Secretary", the expression "Member-Secretary" shall be substituted.

Section 3. Amendment of section 13

3. Amendment of section 13.- In section 13 of the principal Act, in sub-section (2), for clause (a), the following clause shall be substituted, namely;-

"(a) the Commissioner of Land Reforms, who shall be the Chairman, ex-officio;"

Section 4. Substitution of section 14

4. Substitution of section 14.- For section 14 of the principal Act, the following section shall be substituted, namely:-

"14. Matters which a scheme may provide.-A scheme may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:-

(1) identification of priority watersheds by field survey and by using techniques like remote sensing and by the methodology prescribed by the Land Improvement Board or, as the case may be, by the Soil Conservation Board.

Explanation.-For the purpose of this clause, "priority watershed" means a watershed which is subjected to severe soil erosion hazards leading to Joss of valuable top soil, loss of fertility and siltation of reservoirs, tanks down below and the watershed which should be tackled immediately to prevent further erosion and loss of top soil;

(2) measures to control soil erosion due to water and wind such as the following, namely:-

(a) construction of contour or graded bunds (narrow base terrace), bench terraces bundhis with surplusing arrangement and disposal outlets arrangements for planting on earthfill surfaces;

(b) levelling of land and improvement of soil by applying appropriate amendments, manures and fertilisers;

(c) adopting appropriate farming or tillage practices such as contour cultivation, strip cultivation, shallow or deep cultivation;

(d) growing up quick maturing leguminous crops during rainy season and growing row crops with appropriate conservation measures;

(e) retirement of any land from cultivation if its continuance under agriculture is prejudicial to that land or some other land;

(f) afforestation of degraded forests and non-agricultural lands along with closures and necessary soil conservation practices with a view to promoting improved tree growth, from forests and village woodlots;

(g) development of grasslands and fuel-cum-fodder reserves in wastelands, community lands or Government land with appropriate soil conservation measures such as contour dykes and check dams;

(h) control or regulation of grazing, felling of lopping of ??? or clearing of bushes;

(i) raising of utility the plants on private lands, community lands or waste lands with a view to provide additional supplies of feed fodder as well as vegetables, besides raw-materials for subsidiary industries and income therefrom such as planting of sisal, cashewnut, sasbania grandiflora, drum stick and amla;.

(j) planting and growing of trees, shrubs or grasses for providing shelter belt or wind breaks or other protection purposes;

(k) prevention of breaking up of marginal and sub-marginal lands for cultivation purposes; and

(l) controlling and establishing torrents or chose, landslides and slips roadside and cattle patch erosion, by biological and engineering measures, such as check dams, spurs, retaining walls and revetments;

(3) construction of earth and masonary work; in fields, gullies and ravines including catch water drains, wherever necessary;

(4)(a) construction of small storage structures including ponds at appropriate locations in private lands, community lands or Government lands with a view to increasing surface detention;

(b) construction of depression storage in the catchment to promote greater infiltration, reduce silt load in channel flows and peak flows, farm, ponds and other water harvesting measures combined with erosion and gully control works;

(c) restoration of degraded lands for better management;

(d) increase institutionalization of incident rainfall by creating potential for providing protective and supplemental irrigation and thus increase production taking up nalla plugging, field bundhis, percolation tanks, etc., with a view to increase better ground water recharge and some subsequent utilisation for productive as well as domestic use of water;

(5) control of water logging and impeded drainage including development of waterlogged areas into ponds, opening of drainage ditch, increasing number of culverts and other cross drainage works for releasing larger portion of the affected area for development and utilisation for productive management;

(6) reclamation of lands subject to salinity, alkalinity, by providing appropriate drainage system with storage, ponds, wherever necessary; applying amendments; impounding water for washing down, the injurious salts and taking up appropriate crops to reduce the harmful salts for increasing aggregate production;

(7) improvement of sandy soils by constructing bundhis, planting grasses, shrubs and trees, levelling the land, restricting the depths of cultivation, growing leguminous crops and controlling grazing and exploitation;

(8) taking up consolidation of holdings in the notified area, in accordance with the relevant law on the subject, for better use of the land and the available-water and for the disposal of the excess water;

(9) introducing system for utilising products such as sisal leaf, cashew pods for enhancing employment and income therefrom;

(10) protection of land against damage by flood or drought;

(11) training of streams;

(12) regulation for prohibition of firing of vegetation;

(13) improvement of water supply;

(14) sediment control;

(15) farm drainage;

(16) farm irrigation;

(17) control of the strips of land forming swamps and spring sources; and

(18) any other matter which may be preserved."

Section 5. Amendment of section 23

5. Amendment of section 23.- In section 23 of the principal Act,-

(1) for the words "Board of Revenue", in three places where they occur, the words "Commissioner of Land Reforms" shall be substituted;

(2) in sub-section (1), in the third proviso,-

(a) for the words "in its discretion", the words "in his discretion" shall be substituted;

(b) for the words "as it may determine", the words "as he may determine" shall be substituted;

Section 6. Amendment of sections 35, 37 and 39

6. Amendment of sections 35, 37 and 39.- In sections 35, 37 and 39 of the principal Act, for the words "Board of Revenue", wherever they occur, the words "Commissioner of Land Reforms" shall be substituted;

Section 7. Amendment of section 42

7. Amendment of section 42.- In section 42 of the principal Act, in sub-section (2),-

(1) for the words "Board of Revenue", the words "Commissioner of Loud Reforms" shall be substituted;

(2) the word "it" in two places where it occurs, shall be omitted.

Section 8. Insertion of new section 42-A

8. Insertion of new section 42-A.- After section 42 of the principal Act, the following section shall be inserted, namely:-

"42-A. Evaluation of schemes.-(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the Land Improvement Board in respect of any scheme sanctioned by it or by the Government, and the soil Conservation Board in respect of any scheme prepared by it, may direct the District Committee or any other institution to evaluate periodically any such schemes as may be specified in such direction subject to such rules as may be made in this behalf and in accordance with the provisions of this section-

(a) to identify the benefits of the scheme;

(b) to identify technical approaches for measuring such benefits; and

(c) to collect time series date for the purpose.

(2) The benefits referred to in sub-section (1) shall, in general, be of the following kinds, namely:-

A. Protective Benefit-

(i) Direct land protection against erosion such as gullying;

(ii) Protection to the ??? production from eroding lands mentioned under item (i) above.

(iii) Appreciated value of restored land;

(iv) Proportionate investment on dam and its command, protected under major, medium and minor irrigation projects.

B. Productive Benefit-

(i) Additional rainfed production from catchment of the structure;

(ii) Additional production from mini command of the structure;

(iii) Production from restored and irrigated lands which were otherwise out of cultivation or plant management.

C. Employment Generation-

(i) Casual employment due to construction of bunds, terraces, raising of plantations, etc.;

(ii) Regular employment due to intensification of land management or improvement of cropping or plant management;

(iii) Ratio of the post-project employment (Regular) can be termed as employment improvement ratio and taken as an index, for charging the effectiveness of the plan and its implementation.

(3) For the purpose of evaluation of a scheme-

(a) certain mini-project areas representing typical package of conservation practices are to be selected;

(b) the investment made on the scheme, such as the investment made for the following purposes, shall also be taker, into account, namely:-

(i) Land treatment;

(ii) Land restoration;

(iii) Construction of erosion control and Water harvesting structures;

(iv) Mini Command Development;

(c) pre-project and post-project datas are to be called with respect to the following, namely:-

(i) Hydrologic and Sedimentation including climatic and watershed attributes;

(ii) Socio-economic data, which will cover family size and economics, holdings, crop and plant management, production and return and employment."