Bhubaneswar, May 29: Today here an inter-ministerial committee meeting is slated to be held to have discussions on a proposed draft bill for protecting the interest of sharecroppers and ensure that landowners do not lose their land. The Revenue, Agriculture, Law, Panchayati Raj and Cooperative departments’ ministers who are members of the inter-ministerial committee will be present for discussions on having the possible changes to the draft bill as landowners are against the proposed law and fear that they might lose rights over their land. The meeting is supposed to discuss the contour of the new pro-sharecropper law. The proposed draft bill has been prepared keeping in view the suggestions received by the committee from 25 sharecroppers and landowners each from every Tehsil. Earlier, the committee had met twice to initiate the groundwork for the new law that aims to provide the sharecroppers, benefits of crop loan, financial aid during calamities and other government-sponsored programmes.
