Bettiah Raj : After years of grappling with illegal encroachments on the erstwhile zamindari estate of Bettiah Raj, the Bihar government is now set to enact a legislation that would allow it to take complete control of such land.
Introduced in the Bihar Legislative Assembly Tuesday, the Bettiah Raj Property Bill, 2024, will allow the government to take possession of all 15,215 acres of Bettiah land in six of Bihar’s districts – including east and west Champaran – Bihar’s land and revenue department minister Dilip Jaiswal has said.
Speaking about the law after introducing the draft law Tuesday, Jaiswal told reporters that the state government decided to legally take over this land after a pan-Bihar survey revealed “huge mismanagement and encroachment” on the land.
“We needed to bring a law as it had been getting difficult to manage the land, especially under complaints of its encroachment for years,” he said, adding that details of such land will be notified once the law is enacted.
Bettiah Raj originated in the Champaran region and traces its descent from Ujjain Singh and his son, Gaj Singh, who had received the title of Raja from Emperor Shah Jahan in the 17th century. The last raja of Bettiah Raj, Harendra Kishore Singh, died in 1893 without an heir and the estate passed to his first wife, who died in 1896. It was then held by his second wife, Maharani Janki Kuar, but came under the management of a Court of Wards in 1897.
Since the Court of Wards took over, it could not be sold or transferred to anyone. Upon Maharani Janki Kuar’s death in 1954, the Bihar government took control of the estate. Recently, the Bihar government had provided a breakup of the land that was held by Bettiah Raj.
Bettiah Raj: The land is currently valued at around Rs 8,000 crore.
The government also plans to introduce the draft law in the state’s legislative council during the current session that concludes November 29.According to government estimates, at least 50 percent of the total Bettiah Raj land has been encroached on, with sources claiming that the state government barely earns an annual revenue of Rs 2.5 crore by leasing the land to farmers. A vast stretch of land is currently being managed by a civil servant of the additional district magistrate rank.
Significantly, the Nitish Kumar government’s decision to take over such land comes at a time when the dispensation is creating land banks to help draw investments to the state.The state government also intends to speak to the Uttar Pradesh government over 143 acres of Bettiah land in that state, Jaiswal told reporters.
According to a government official, once enacted, the legislation would give powers to the state’s revenue department and district magistrate to use the Bettiah land “to open schools, colleges, hospitals and community halls” and would also come handy in the government’s efforts to create land banks
Of the 15,215 acres under the Bettiah Raj estate in Bihar, 9,758 acres is in West Champaran, and 5,320 acres is in East Champaran. Besides these, there are 88 acres of land in Saran, 35 acres in Gopalganj, seven acres in Siwan, and four acres in Patna.The neighbouring UP has 61 acres of such land in Kushinagar, 50 acres in Gorakhpur, 10 acres in Varanasi, seven acres in Maharajganj, six acres in Basti, four acres in Prayag Raj, and one acre each in Ayodhya and Mirzapur.