Mumbai, July 2 (IANS) In a major relief for the farming community, Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Thursday in the state assembly announced that farmers will no longer have to pay a single rupee as royalty (ownership fee) to the government for minor minerals like soil, silt, and murum (hard murram) required for land improvement, or for constructing wells, cattle sheds, and farmhouses.

He said that strict action will be taken against police or revenue officials who intercept farmers’ tractors or bullock carts to impose punitive fines, aggressively in both houses of the State Legislature.

The minister responded to demands raised in the House by MLAs including Sanjay Puram, Abhimanyu Pawar, Gopichand Padalkar, Ratnakar Gutte, Ashish Deshmukh, Santosh Danve, Satish Deshmukh, Narayan Kuche, Rajkumar Badole, Ashish Jaiswal, Nana Patole, and Vijay Wadettiwar. Notably, the official Government Resolution (GR) to this effect was issued immediately following the announcement.

With the state’s economy heavily reliant on agriculture, the primary objective of this decision is to accelerate rural development. Farmers are now completely free to excavate silt, soil, and murum from reservoirs, village ponds, farm ponds, percolation tanks, village streams, revenue streams, weirs, Malgujari tanks, and minor irrigation tanks under the jurisdiction of the Water Resources and Soil Conservation Departments, as well as from their own fields. This minor mineral extraction can be directly utilised to fill potholes, clear monsoon mud on farms and access roads, dig wells, construct cattle sheds, and repair farmhouses, said the minister.

Minister Bawankule said that to ensure farmers do not have to repeatedly visit government offices, the administrative process has been significantly simplified. A farmer only needs to submit a simple application to the local Talathi (village revenue official). The concerned Circle Officer is legally mandated to grant permission within 15 days of receiving the application. If the ponds or streams fall under the Soil Conservation Department, a No Objection Certificate (NOC) must be obtained from that department, and from the Tahsildar if they are revenue streams, he added.

“No Tahsildar or police official will seize tractors, trucks, or bullock carts if farmers are transporting soil or murum for personal and agricultural use. No punitive action will be taken against them. If any official unnecessarily harasses a farmer, the government will take stringent action,” said Minister Bawankule.

He further added, “This decision has been taken solely for the personal welfare of farmers and the betterment of agriculture. No commercial misuse of this concession will be tolerated, and standard legal action will be initiated if any commercial exploitation is detected.”

–IANS

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